I had come to A f rica t o see
are
exhilarating in t heir
The w ild creatures multitudes and colors . . .
of the earth’s morning might account for the an t icipa t ion and I imagined for a time that this glimpse
The sense of origins, of innocence and mys tery, like a marvelous childhood faculty restored .
Perhaps it is the consciousness that here in Africa, south of the Sahara,
our kind wa s bor n.
Best African Safari Tour Operator Wor ld ’s B est Va lu e Winn e r
Legacy in Travel Philanthropy Award
Tr ip s o f a Lifet i m e
Global Vision Award
Development, Youth Education Micato One for One Commitment
Virtuoso Winner
Best Sustainable Leadership
Best VAST (Active) Operator
Best Escorted Tour Operator
Best Destinations & Experiences
Custom Tour Partner
Family and Celebration Partner
Best Tour Operator Africa / Middle East
Virtuoso Performance Award P L AC E S T O S EE B EFORE YOU D IE 1,000
#1 New York Times Travel Guide Preferred East Africa
Sorry for the fine print, but here are some other Micato Awards and Accolades:
Global Travel Collection, Best Community Involvement • World Tourism Award • 52-Time Winner, Travel Weekly Magellan Awards, including Gold for Best Tour Operator, Best Education Program, Best Giving Back Initiative, Best Social Media, Best Consumer Brochure, Best Marketing Campaign, Best Direct Mail, and Best Trade Website • Travvy Award: Gold, Best Escorted Tour Operator, Africa and Silver, Best Escorted Tour Operator, Adventure • Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Adrian Awards: Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility; Gold, Best Trade Brochure and Best Consumer Brochure, multiple years; HSMAI and National Geographic Traveler Gold Winner, Leader in Sustainable Tourism • Ubuntu Tourism Award • Travel Weekly’s World Travel Market Global Award Tanzania Tourist Board Cruise Development Award • TORCH (Together Our Resources Can Help) Inspiration Award, to Lorna Macleod, head of Micato-AmericaShare William D. Littleford Award for Corporate Community Service • Travel Agent magazine’s Tour Operator of the Year: Leaders in Luxury— Dennis Pinto • LuxuryLink.com’s World’s Best Luxury Tour Company • National Geographic 50 Tours of a Lifetime
It’s not until you entrust your incredibly special anniversary and bucket list to their hands, that you realize Micato’s staff also invest themselves to make your experience beyond expectations! You start to realize the difference by being cared for like part of the Micato family.
Jennifer Guevara
Micato sets itself apart in a sea of travel companies by striking a perfect balance between soaring luxury and down home hospitality. Our wants? Anticipated and met. Creases? Ironed out.
Will Spencer
Micato is unsurpassed in its attention to detail. They anticipate any need and are there with you from the moment you land in Africa up through when they say goodbye to you before you go through Customs. And their commitment to local philanthropy will take your breath away.
— Mari Marks
A sampling of Micato’s more than 400 Five-Star Google Reviews. They share a common theme: Familial care; large, on-the-ball sta and infrastructure; our commitment to our birthplace.
I’ve never heard of a safari company that puts a child through school for every person that travels with them. My family will absolutely be booking a Micato safari, and six kids will be getting an education. We would give them TEN stars for that.
Charlotte Sponselee
Enough cannot be said about the familial comfort and genuine joy and personality-based generosity that all of the Micato employees displayed throughout our safari adventure. —Luke Kallis
After nearly four decades in the travel industry, I can say that our Kenya safari ranks at the very top of the trips our family has ever taken—a validation of M icato’s winning Travel +L ei sure’s best safari operator award an amazing ten times.
Jim Sano
The next 160 or so pages are replete with reasons— distilled on pages 18 -33 (there are a lot of them!). But these are fundamental:
Sixty years ago Felix and Jane Pinto decided to create an expert, joyfully enthusiastic, and warmhearted safari company. And they succeeded. Of all the accolades and awards that have come our way, perhaps the most cheering is from Travel+Leisure: “Micato’s edge is personal warmth. The Pintos treat their guests like well-loved, out-of-town relatives.” (And this goes for employees, too, as Felix and Jane intended from the beginning. The average tenure of a Micato worker is 11 years.)
2.
As an African-born, familyfounded, family- operated, and family- owned company we have a special responsibility to our homeland. Our ethos of care and our technical expertise have allowed us to create a marvelously robust and successful series of initiatives —Micato-AmericaShare and Huru feature prominently. If you read nothing else in this brochure, we hope it will be pages 46 to 53
Micato’s culture of unstinting familial care is only possible because we have such a large, efficient, experienced, and big-spirited staff, both in-country and across a few continents. That, and a finely-tuned and extraordinarily large infrastructure— uniquely large, to tell the truth— ensure quick, proactive response to problems, and a carefree smoothness to every safari, every day.
The Micato Story
The World’s Most Awarded Safari Company 10
A Letter from Our Managing Director, Dennis Pinto 15
The Pinto Family: A Unique African Story 16
The Micato Difference
The Micato Difference 18
How We Safari
Three Ways to Safari with Micato 35 A Day on Safari 37
When is the Best Time to Safari? 38
Flying Over Africa 41
Families on Safari 43
Micato-AmericaShare 46
Huru 52
The Safaris: Custom, Classic, and Private Classic
Custom Safaris 54
Private Villas and Estates 60
Classic Safaris 64
Private Classic Safaris 66
The Classic Safaris
The Micato Grand Safari 71
The Hemingway Wing Safari 77
The Stanley Wing Safari 83
Tanzania Spectacular 89
The Heart of Kenya and Tanzania 95
African Splendour 101
Jewels of Southern Africa 109
Passage Through Botswana and Zimbabwe 115
Botswana’s Timeless Wilderness 121
East and Southern Africa Extensions and Options 126
Camps and Lodges
The East and Southern Africa Collections 134
We recently won our tenth first-place Travel +Leisure award for World’s Best Safari Outfitter (I’m proud to say that no other company has more than three wins), but among all our many accolades, perhaps the most heartening is also from Travel +Leisure: “The Pintos treat their guests like well-loved, out-of-town relatives.”
Micato’s dedication to expert, familial service is the legacy of our founders, my parents Felix and Jane (pictured below in Nairobi). Willingness to go many extra miles to ensure that a Micato safari is the trip of a lifetime—as it is for so many of our guests— is the rock on which Felix and Jane built our family-owned, family-operated company, and why every member of the Micato team will become your welcoming family— from the Safari Director who will be with you from touchdown to takeoff, to our large staffs in the U.S. and East and Southern Africa.
And so, I hope you’ll enjoy an armchair safari with this brochure, and that you’ll consider joining us for hilltop sundowners overlooking the guileless and gorgeous African game lands.
We’ll clink our glasses in celebration of the safari life Isak Dinesen said “makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne— bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive.”
Sincerely,
Dennis Pinto Managing Director
In 1963 Felix Pinto, a high-ranking member of Kenya’s colonial government, was personally invited by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding father, into the government of the newly independent country, where he was instrumental in laying the foundations for Kenya’s agricultural success story.
Jane Pinto—like Felix, a second-generation Kenyan—was an elite international table tennis player. They lived on a rambling farm off Bogani Road, in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, where they raised their three kids.
In 1966 Felix and Jane—known as Mama Kibiriti, She Who Gets Things Done, now in retirement yet full of energy and talent—decided to start a little safari company. The brochure you hold in your the pinto FAMILY
hands is evidence of their success. But Micato, now a big company, remains a family affair, committed to making its Micato affiliate employees on three continents, and its guests from all over the world, feel like family.
Felix Pinto and Jane Pinto, Micato Africa’s founders, live just outside Nairobi in beautiful Lavington House. They also enjoy sojourns to their Cape Town residence and safaris with their children and grandchildren.
Felix is one of Kenya’s most highly respected businessmen. The family’s Ideal Farm, close by Nairobi National Park, was for many years a model East African agro-industrial enterprise (and the home of a cadre of prize-winning livestock—including a massively beautiful champion pig who occupies regal stature in family lore).
As a former Kenyan table tennis champion—ask Jane about having her picture taken with China’s premier Zhou Enlai during the famous Ping Pong Diplomacy tournament in 1971—she sits on the board of the International Table Tennis Federation, represents Kenya at the Olympics and at international championships, and is an accomplished businesswoman (as this brochure attests). But Jane’s greatest passion is helping her country’s children in need; her work with Mother Teresa is reflected in Micato-AmericaShare’s programmes.
Executive Director Anastasia Pinto heads up Micato’s multi-continental sales efforts from her base in Los Angeles. A graduate of St. Lawrence University, she began her sales career with Hyatt Hotels in the South Pacific. Anna is deeply involved with the Pediatric Therapy Network and Sandpipers, an influential Southern California women’s philanthropy, and she is a major force behind Micato-AmericaShare, just one example of her embrace of Africa’s and the Pinto family’s tradition of supporting those in need.
After graduating from St. Mary’s School in Nairobi, Dennis Pinto, Micato’s Managing Director, headed west to Stanford and then all over the world as a vice president for American Express International Banking. Nearly 40 years ago Dennis took a six-month sabbatical to set up a New York City office for Micato,
and he’s still happily ensconced in the Big Apple. Skillfully honing the Micato Safaris philosophy of luxury, exploration, cultural interaction, and responsibility, he also co-founded MicatoAmericaShare.
Joy Phelan-Pinto, our Executive Director and Dennis’ bride of 31 years, oversees Micato’s brand and editorial strategy and is the impresaria of this brochure. An alumna of Taft School and Brown University, Joy has a love of travel and the travel business that led her to executive positions with Travel Dynamics and the Cunard Line. She managed such legendary vessels as Sea Goddess, Sea Cloud, and Royal Viking Sun, and at last count has travelled to 120 countries and territories. She has summited Kilimanjaro, regularly explores Africa with the family, and she and Dennis keep their New York home fires burning for their career-building kids, Sasha and Tristan.
Alan Lobo, our Chief Operating Officer, is a graduate of Southern California’s Loyola Marymount University and is a mainstay of New York City’s much-vaunted Village Lions Rugby Football Club. Alan grew up with Micato: his mother, Dulu, is Jane Pinto’s cherished sister and Micato’s Head Concierge Emerita in Nairobi.
For more than a half-century we’ve been perfecting our craft, maximizing our safariers’ ease and comfort, minimizing their worries. The result? An almost unbelievably all-inclusive, hassle-free safari, as this list, and the next 14 pages demonstrate.
What drives us? We were born here, more than a halfcentury ago. We’re eager to show you Africa through our proud eyes. And we’re quite literally dedicated:
Our teams on the ground and stateside work only for Micato—their average tenure is more than 11 years— giving us unsurpassed quality control over every facet of your safari.
Our mission is happily two-fold: Orchestrating the world’s best safaris and, just as importantly, supporting our wonderfully successful nonprofit, MicatoAmericaShare (about which please see pages 46-53).
And so, here’s a quick list of the Micato Differences:
n Travel+Leisure has named us #1 World’s Best Safari Outfitter ten times. No other company comes remotely close.
n Itineraries perfected by our large in-country staff’s generations of experience and the generational knowledge that comes from living in Africa.
n Small-group, non-groupy safaris averaging 12 guests, and as few as two. And on Custom Safaris, sky’s the limit.
n All tips included, always and everywhere, even to Safari Directors and Driver Guides. It’s possible to safari with us and never take out your wallet.
n 100% guaranteed departures on our more than 400-a-year scheduled Classic Safaris, even for parties of two.
n Safari Directors—all Silver and Gold certified— accompany every Micato safari from beginning to end.
n A wonder-working Concierge Team, at your beck and call every moment of the day and night.
n Micato’s full-time, safari-expert staff, ready to address questions, make recommendations, go over every detail.
n Luxurious camps and lodges—obsessively and continually evaluated on the ground by our Safari Directors and Africa staff. (And since we don’t own or operate the lodges and camps we frequent, we’re able to put our guests’ interests first, not our company’s.)
n Easily arranged private bush flights and private safari vehicles for your group of friends and family—on all our safaris, Custom, Classic, or Private Classic.
n All meals included. And we unhesitatingly pick up the tab for meals in any local restaurant on all Custom Safaris.
n At mealtimes, regional wines, beer, and bottled water are included. In Southern Africa, spirits are often included, too.
n Free valet laundry service, everywhere, every day (and complimentary, custom-designed luggage to put it in).
n The finest, well-stocked safari vehicles, Wi-Fi equipped, with guaranteed window seats for all.
n Exclusive access to people, places, and experiences available only through the Pinto family’s longtime connections.
n And this could go to the top of the list: knowing that your safari contributes directly to MicatoAmericaShare’s substantial efforts to educate and nurture African youth.
The Pintos treat their guests like well-loved, out-of-town relatives.
Travel+Leisure
Barely half an hour goes by in my regular life that I don’t have to think about details or schedules or making a decision for someone in my family.
On my Micato safari I didn’t have to think.
Our Safari Director did all the thinking. I could relax and enjoy the sublime moments.
—Patty Brandt
When Micato was founded 60 years ago our mission statement was simple: Treat guests like family. For us, that means anticipating your wants and needs as well as handling a multitude of tiny details… part of our familial dedication to making safaris seamless and worry-free.
We have never cancelled a safari, even for parties of one or two. (Of course, Micato’s Recommended Travel Insurance Plan protects your investment should you be forced to cancel the trip yourself.)
Day or night, as a matter of course, your Safari Director and a private vehicle will meet you promptly and accompany you to your hotel. And the same seamless care goes for departures: your Safari Director won’t leave until your plane is in the air. Vacation time is valuable, and we won’t let you languish in
waiting rooms, or roam an airport looking for transfers. There isn’t a moment on a Micato safari when your Safari Director isn’t cheerfully at your service.
On your last day, we also book a private hotel day room for you to await late-departing flights—with, as always, your Safari Director and a vehicle at your disposal, with meals included and our notipping policy in comforting effect. In addition to not having to mark time in an airport, this gives you the afternoon for shopping, resting, and freshening up before your Safari Director and vehicle accompany you to your flight.
Our safaris include myriad internal flights for both expeditious and amazing travel (about which, see page 41’s tribute to the wonders of flying over Africa). We provide customized flight kits with local newspapers, fact sheets, quiz games, and other unexpected onboard amusements. And note that we can easily arrange for your group to enjoy private flights (and private safari vehicles) on all our safaris.
As for the important practicalities: by flying in— it almost goes without saying—carefully vetted, comfortable planes, we save up to 20 hours of driving per safari. We arrange for all flights to take off and land at excellent bush airstrips, close to your lodges, eliminating the tedium of airport check-ins and arrivals, luggage transfers and delays. We simply drive to the steps of our waiting aircraft and amble aboard.
Sixty years on safari has taught us what makes an exceedingly comfortable, even luxuriously stocked safari vehicle. In the bush we supply ours with cool beverages and snacks, binoculars, flora and fauna
guide books, lap blankets for chilly mornings and evenings, a pit-stop kit, plus bean bags for stabilizing long lenses. All guests are also assured of a window seat in our vehicles throughout East and Southern Africa.
Micato vehicles also offer Wi-Fi, charging ports, refrigerators, oversized windows and extra head room. Our city vehicles are additionally equipped with air conditioning.
The services of East Africa’s famous Flying Doctors are included in every safari as part of Micato’s comprehensive Passenger Protection Program. A group of highly qualified physicians, the doctors fly throughout the East African bush, providing treatment and emergency transportation. Similar evacuation services are available to Micato travellers in South Africa and at select lodges in Botswana, ensuring our guests receive the quickest, most reliable medical attention and transport.
If your luggage fails to arrive from an international flight, we’re at the ready with a marvelously stressrelieving kit including a change of clothes and amenities. And if you need something else, your Concierge will provide it, posthaste.
I’ ve never been on a trip where I didn’t worry about anything. I knew we would be taken care of regardless of what happened. It truly was a trip beyond expectations.
—Michele Vogel
And they’re with you every step of the way. Safari Directors meet you upon landing in Africa and are with you until the moment you depart, always nearby and on prompt call around the clock—not just during business hours.
In addition to a thorough education in the theory and on-the-savannah practice of our state-of-thescience safety protocols, every Micato Safari Director in Kenya has earned prestigious Gold or Silver certifications from the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association. Seasoned professionals, most
of whom have been with us their entire careers, graduates of Kenya Utalii College or Tanzania’s College of Wildlife Management, they’re creative choreographers of safari: guiding flexible, alwayson-the-lookout forays into the bush, lecturing on flora and fauna, deftly handling logistics, and imparting fascinating nuggets of African history and local folklore. They will also become dear friends.
And the same highest standards and credentials— and affable, unstinting service—apply to Micato Safari Directors in all the East and Southern African countries in which we safari.
From the minute we stepped off the airplane in Nairobi, to the moment we said good-bye to our Safari Director Henry the trip far exceeded our expectations. He delighted us with his enthusiasm, his knowledge and love for the animals. Throughout the trip we experienced many instances of his caring, charming, witty and humble personality. He gracefully took care of all travel needs - airport check-ins, boarding passes, border crossings, hotel check-in/out, many wonderful surprises, and overall hand holding. —Elisabeth Brown
Our Concierges are available any time and anywhere Micato takes you. These resourceful Nairobi, Cape Town, Arusha, and Johannesburg-based teams are ready to obtain forgotten prescriptions, make flight changes, find a camera battery and fly it to you in the bush. They’ll shop for you, pack your purchases, and ship them home. If you need it, they’ll move mountains to get it done. Micato is the only company to offer this (of course, tripprice-included, worry-banishing) service.
Not at safari’s beginning or end, not in hotels, lodges, camps, airports, not to Micato Concierges, or anywhere in between.
We also decided years ago to buck industry convention and include the substantial end-of-trip tips to Safari Directors and Driver Guides, unlike other safari operators. Because a seamless safari should never include the anxiety of how much, who and when to tip.
I have rarely ever worked with an organization that is so detail-oriented, so thoughtful, so welcoming, so personal (and with such personable staff). And all those extra-special Micato touches, those behind-the-scenes experiences. How to chronicle them? —Ruth Katz
Laundry is included everywhere, every day—not just once during your safari, but where and when you need it. Imagine returning from a day in the bush to find your clothes cleaned and folded, even on your last day with us. Flying home in clean clothes: a delightful luxury.
It’s also our pleasure to provide complimentary Wi-Fi wherever it exists. More and more camps feature Wi-Fi but not all—though, rather wonderfully, Micato safari vehicles throughout Africa do. You may or may not want to keep in virtual contact with the world, but it’s nice to know you can.
We put our 60 years of safari experience together with our ace designer friends to create the ideal bag, sized for safaris and bush flights, and for easy rolling in airports. The result: a stylish,
lightweight-but-sturdy, gloriously roomy duffel with terrifically handy features, including a retractable handle and wheels…not that you’ll ever lift your bags in Africa: luggage will simply appear inside your room like magic from camp to camp.
Averaging 12 guests (and as few as two), our guaranteed-departure Micato Classics create astonishing shared experiences, fond friendships, and lots of laughter— with your exuberant, expert Safari Director leading the troupe.
Micato is proud to offer the most non-groupy group safaris imaginable. We operate our 9 Classics with the same dedication to service as our private Custom Safaris (see pages 54-63). At every location your Safari Director will present you with a variety of individualized activity choices (and he’ll make sure every camp and lodge chef meets your dietary preferences and restrictions).
There may be moments when your interests diverge from those of the group, but the Micato team is ready. Perhaps you’d like to return to the bush to find that elusive leopard while others catch up with their reading? Certainly. Or maybe your fellow travellers prefer to visit that intriguing shop three villages
down the road while you remain at camp? We’ll send a car. And if you change your mind and decide to join the shoppers later, we’ll send another car.
Our Safari Directors make the seemingly impossible quite happily possible for every Micato guest, every day.
Group travel, for many, conjures images of weary guides waving flags, herding people into garish buses. Which is not the Micato way. We resolutely emphasize individual care and preferences, and, as one Micato safarier wrote, “Within a day or so, our group melded beautifully…it was like taking a vacation with new and like-minded friends.”
Small groups and Micato’s love of spontaneity mean we can react quickly and do more. You may find yourself hopping out of the pool and into a vehicle to see the lion cubs that came out of hiding while you were relaxing. Or diverting from the lunch plan to check out the hip little café discovered by the younger Pintos a few days earlier.
Our Safari Directors have been known to make impromptu stops in their villages to introduce you to the family. Other groups have chatted up Parliament members, ministers, and professors encountered on the fly by Safari Directors who made the introductions. We’re constantly on the lookout for remarkable opportunities to delight our guests.
And finally, our Classic Safaris are the culmination of generations of safari experience complemented by present-day knowledge, and woven together
with seamless bush flights to provide more time on safari. Not having ownership stakes in African hotel properties is also a key Micato advantage: we’re uniquely able to include only the newest, best and most desirable camps and lodges in our programmes, unlike so many safari operators who are obliged to use their own.
One of our group purchased the wrong size pants in Nairobi, and Micato returned the pants, found the right size, and had them delivered to the bush the next day. Your service surpassed all definitions of “excellence,” from stunning sunset appetizers and fine wines in the bush, and all the hundreds of little touches that none of the other safari companies provide.
—Zora Lazic
It’s a point of pride for us to find and favour East and Southern Africa’s toppest-notch camps and lodges. And evidence of our selectiveness appears just about everywhere in this brochure, very specifically on pages 134-159.*
We and our guests are in our camps and lodges almost every day, and we constantly give them white-glove, top-to-bottom look-overs. Most of our regularly scheduled Classic Safaris feature properties listed on the Travel+Leisure World’s Best Hotels Africa list and T+L’s World’s Top 500 Hotels…plus a few private favourites of our own.
Because we enjoy such good relations—and good business—with Micato’s favoured camps and lodges, our guests are accorded preferential treatment, and greeted as good friends of good friends.
It takes on-the-ground, up-to-the-minute knowledge to select the finest safari lodges. The latest trendy camp in the magazines may be a long 45-minute drive from wildlife. Or too close to a main road or village to attract good game— antelopes perhaps, but not big cats. Sometimes you want your camp to be inside a game reserve, and other times it’s preferable to stay outside the gate. Many of the oldest lodges are in the best locations, but what about the leading-edge, community-owned group ranches? We know these things, and more.
You’ve flown all night and your plane touches down in Nairobi, Cape Town, Arusha, or Johannesburg in the wee hours of the morning. You meet your Micato staff and drive to the hotel and—!—proceed serenely to your room (feeling sorry for the folks who booked with other safari companies, and who are now exhaustedly lining up in front of the reception desk).
Micato’s unique Personal Concierges in Nairobi, Cape Town, Arusha, and Johannesburg carefully scrutinize your hotel room before your arrival to make sure everything is ship-shape… and even slip in a surprise or two. They also escort you to your room, show you around, and check back with you regularly.
* A frequently asked question: What’s the difference between a lodge and a camp? Well, a lodge’s buildings are permanent, while camps feature canvas tents on permanent foundations. Of course, as the many pictures in these pages attest, and as a friend once said, “Those are tents like the mansions at Newport were cottages.”
Micato’s 60 years of safari experience and three generations of the Pinto family born and raised in Africa enable us to provide you with an insider’s understanding, extraordinary introductions, and unique access.
Having raised their family in Kenya, Micato founders Felix and Jane Pinto make their home in Nairobi and Cape Town. They’re quite the couple about town, and seem to know absolutely everyone. And, of course, their friends are your friends—and as one of those friends says, “The sign may say closed, but if it’s Micato, come on in.”
Whether it’s Louise Leakey driving her Micatodecaled car #17 in an off-road rally in between unearthing fossils of early mankind, National Geographic Explorer and lion researcher Shivani Bhalla, or the continent’s new master chefs and young artists, we can put you in touch with engaging people making a mark in today’s Africa.
It’s a rare company that doesn’t say its guides are the best. But: You don’t reach the pinnacle of the safari world if your guides—the very face of your company—aren’t absolutely the best. And ours are, or we wouldn’t be atop that pinnacle.
Africa’s magic charms are revealed as you explore everything from wildlife and tribal cultures to politics and history with your remarkable Safari Directors—Africans born and raised, not expats or transplants. They bring Africa’s story to life through a delightful blend of guiding in the bush, lecturing in camp, conversations over meals, and enlightening anecdotes in between.
The health and safety of Micato guests is our primary priority. Micato is connected with topflight security and advisory networks in the U.S. and Africa. Our general manager in East Africa is a Member of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya, and works closely with the U.S. ambassador and government officials. Felix and Jane Pinto—who consider their guests extended family members—and their management team live in Africa, with the network and resources to anticipate and respond to situations quickly. Our team has their finger on the pulse of what’s happening.
For me, whether it’s Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, side trips to Zanzibar or Victoria Falls, or gorillatracking excursions to Rwanda, the “best” is always the same—Micato. The Pinto family, which launched Micato 60 years ago, from Africa, has unrivaled experience and an incredible network of personal connections at the highest levels. . I know many of the best and most well-informed travel agents in the nation, and they pretty much unanimously swear by Micato. . There is no one else I would consider using to plan a trip to Africa.
—Larry Olmsted, Forbes
You don’t win Travel +Leisure’s award for #1 World’s Best Safari Outfitter an unprecedented ten times unless you’re on the ball, all the time. It’s our happy tradition to go far beyond what’s expected of even the most luxurious safari outfitter.
Heartfelt Hospitality
It’s more than a custom in Africa, it’s a way of life. And it includes a joyous, proud, and uniquely insightful introduction to the wonders of our homeland’s sterling people, its astounding animals, and its magnificent landscapes.
Amazements Aplenty
Every safari includes Only Micato Moments designed to surprise and delight. In the bush, we arrange sublime sundowner cocktails at twilight on the plains and picnic lunches under ancient
baobab trees. Then we amaze you with the sights and sounds of the awakening bush on an early morning walking safari or a peaceful after-dark encounter with Africa’s nocturnal creatures.
In villages and towns, we visit market days and tempt you with savoury bites of local specialties and the joyous hubbub of local sellers, and take merry, off-the-beaten-path rides in tuk-tuks to explore proudly authentic old quarters. In the savannahs, we also know the traditional tribal villages where heart-stirring encounters with elders and mamas are still wonderfully possible, your Micato Safari Director facilitating every unforgettable moment.
There’s nothing we relish more than providing exclusive safari experiences. Just a few highlights: Flying ice cream sundaes to a surprised gamedriving couple so they could continue a long anniversary tradition. Arranging for guests to run the Kenyan Highlands with elite Kenyan marathoners. The celebrated Rovos Rail luxury train staged its first-ever cooking demonstration in their galley car exclusively for our travellers. We’ve assisted award-winning biologists in lion conservation projects, and we’ve combed the dry riverbeds of Northern Kenya for hominid fossils with the Leakey family. If you want to meet someone, see or do something, we’ll make it happen.
From the moment we welcome you to Africa, all meals and mealtime drinks are included—even, happily, local beer and wine. In Southern Africa, we often include spirits, too. We’re also lavish with complimentary bottled water and soft drinks— and not just at meals but in your rooms, tents, and safari vehicles. On a Custom Safari, you may also dine at any restaurant of your choice and order anything on the menu. We’ll make the reservation, arrange the car, and pick up the tab.
You expect first-class treatment from Micato and that’s exactly what you get. What makes Micato even more special is the attention to detail in the added touches, the welcoming dinners, the little gifts from Felix and Jane along the way, and the extra care taken with our children.
—Alex Trebek
A safari hand-tailored from top to bottom according to your schedule and interests.
For more about our Custom Safaris in East and Southern Africa, see pages 54-59. And take a look at our sublime Private Villas and Estates on pages 60-63.
A scheduled small-group departure. Nine different safari programmes, with multiple departure dates every month, all guaranteed to operate.
Scroll over to pages 71-105 for East Africa and pages 109-125 for Southern Africa.
You and your family or group of friends choose one of the many scheduled departure dates of any Classic Safari and convert it into a completely private journey, with your own vehicle and a Micato Safari Director to yourselves. See more about Private Classics on page 66 (and elsewhere; they’re a splendid safari option to consider).
The sun rises early and eagerly on the savannahs, and after some tea, coffee, and pre-breakfast snacks, we venture into what the great lover of Africa Peter Beard called “a paradise caressed by light and air in their most special forms.”
Back at the lodge, we tuck into an English-style breakfast, or perhaps we enjoy an acacia-shaded picnic in the bush.
“Whole landscapes seem alert,” Peter Matthiessen wrote about Africa in The Tree Where Man Was Born. He may well have been thinking of our alertness in these landscapes, a charged, joyous concentration “like a marvelous childhood faculty restored.”
We roam the savannahs and forests with our eyes, searching for their treasures— Look! There, a cheetah! —and the land is no longer mere scenery, an object to look at and admire, but a living thing that invites intimacy and engagement. We know about our species that the more we engage with something, the more likely we are to develop a fiery affection for it.
After a festive lunch, with talk of sightings and amazements (high on the list of safari surprises: the fresh and tasty food), we have time for reading, music, maybe a profound nap followed by a swim, and then it’s off for an afternoon game drive.
After a lovely dinner back at camp, and some time around the campfire, we’re off to bed. And in the morning we may agree with author Elspeth Huxley that there is no “sleep so perfect as that stirred but not broken by the thrilling vibrance of a lion’s roar.”
Africa always brings us something new.
—Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis
An often-asked question. And the quick but accurate answer is: Now.
Here’s why:
East and Southern Africa don’t experience dramatic seasonal differences (like most of the Northern Hemisphere, for instance). In Kenya, of course, you can step across the equator, from summer into winter, without noticing the slightest change in the weather. But that holds largely true, eight and a half million straight-line footsteps, all the way south to Cape Town.
If you take a look at our Classic Safaris (pages 71-131) you’ll see that we offer two to (usually) four or five safaris every month in East and
Southern Africa, except April in East Africa. And remember, all those many more than 400 safaris are guaranteed departures.
We safari year-round because the best time to safari is when you have the time to realize a travel dream. Because the wet and the drier times of year each have their own inimitable African charms, and because, year-round, Africa’s game lands are, as Peter Beard said, “a paradise caressed by light and air in their most spectacular forms.” (One paradisiacal sight: the long, golden streams of light that streak down from polished pewter clouds. Africans call them “fingers of God.” Photographers call them crepuscular rays, most of us call them sunbeams, and they are deeply memorable.)
The famous Great Migration, the grandest movement of large animals on the planet, is another year-round event. Throughout the year, millions of zebras, wildebeest, and other ungulates, eagerly awaited by mammalian and crocodilian predators, circulate clockwise around the New Hampshiresized Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem. Our luxury camps in the Maasai Mara (the northern, Kenyan part of that system) and the Serengeti (in Tanzania) are well situated to view the migration’s various dramatic river crossings, which produce so many jaw-dropping pictures. But the migration is impressively ongoing: it’s common for us to see miles-long streams of animals most times of the year from many of our camps and lodges in both Kenya and Tanzania.
This is essentially a travel industry term, reflecting times when larger or smaller numbers of people are free to travel—school terms, vacation times, etc.— and when camps and lodges may have many, or fewer guests. Since we carefully choose our camps and lodges for their intimacy and privacy, these high or low seasons aren’t a major concern for us or our guests. As we say, the best time to safari is when you’re good and ready.
How splendidly wrong we were in thinking Micato was like anyone else. For Micato it’s not about luxury (though there’s that to spare), it’s about authenticity. —Bob Ramsay and Jean Marmoreo
You may remember—it’s hard to forget—the scene in the film version of Out of Africa when Denys Finch Hatton (played by Robert Redford) lands his Gipsy Moth near Karen Blixen’s (Meryl Streep’s) farm. She rushes out to the spiffy little biplane, and Finch Hatton doesn’t take off his flying goggles, he barely throttles back his engine, he just says, “Get in,” and thus begins one of cinema’s great moments: a heart-firing poem of a swooping flight over the incomparably eloquent landscapes of East Africa.*
Isak Dinesen, Blixen’s nom de plume, remembered her many African flights as “the most transporting pleasure of my life. . Every time I have gone up in an aeroplane and looking down have realized that I was free of the ground, I have had the consciousness of a great new discovery. ‘I see,’ I have thought, ‘This was the idea. And now I understand everything.’ ” It’s as true today as it was in the 1920s: flying low and easily over the continent in small planes
is a matchlessly intimate way to appreciate its subtle and dramatic colours, its tectonic dramas, and its cavalcade of creatures. We fly over villages, waving to their residents, and in a few moments, we’re on the ground, shaking their hands. One of our guests said it well: “For me, flying over Africa is about as flying as flying gets.”
Our Custom Safaris offer as many flights as your personalized itinerary calls for, and we— and our guests over the years—think the flights that link lodges and camps on our Classic Safaris (six on The Micato Grand Safari, for instance, and five on The Stanley Wing) are safari highlights, airy dalliances with Africa’s incomparable landscapes.
* Before she climbs into the plane, Blixen asks Finch Hatton, “When did you learn to fly?” And he answers with a Redfordian grin, “Yesterday.” Rest assured our pilots have hundreds upon hundreds of times more experience than that—and many of them have movie-star smiles. (As for the welcome practicality of flying in Africa, see Bush Flights with a Difference, page 21.)
Africa is one of the most family-friendly places on earth. Not only because of the stellar, multi-generational excitements of safari, but also because family is vitally important to the people of Africa, and visiting families enjoy great respect.
Devices are put on hold and youthful imaginations are sparked on safari. The world expands, brightens. Fabulous sights are seen, horizons stretched, educations enhanced, emptying nests are strengthened by memories that reverberate merrily unto the generations.
Our private Custom Safaris are individually designed around family activities—and for times when the generations want to temporarily go their own ways. (And our Classic and Private Classic Safaris—all of which feature children’s rates—are eminently family-friendly.)
Micato set the stage for what we thought would be spectacular, and you exceeded our expectations….As a family we’ve never felt more surrounded by excitement and adventure. We never had a worry about safety or health… family vacations always go that much better when there are no concerns there. We credit Micato for all of that!
— Karen Bell & family
My son danced exuberantly with the Maasai, and decided to become a warrior himself. The chef at Amboseli told me he hadn’t cooked with nuts for two days to keep my son safe. So incredibly moving. . . such warmth, such care. True kindness and unbelievable good humor.
—Ami Rothschild
Creating one-of-a-kind family safaris isn’t a nice little market niche for us. It’s a way of life. As witnessed in the family portrait above.
Dennis Pinto was born and raised in Africa, and has safaried with his parents Felix and Jane, Micato’s founders, since he was a child, growing up in the purple shadows of the Ngong Hills. Joy Pinto was already an old Africa hand when she and Dennis were married. And Sasha and Tristan were gamboling in Africa’s wildlands before they knew the difference between a warthog and a wildebeest.
For three generations of Pintos, safari is a vocation and an ever-expanding delight.
…which is why our Custom Safaris are designed around your interests and inspirations, your timeframe, your family’s individual needs and fancies, from youngest to oldest and every age in between. And it’s why our Classic and Private Classic Safaris are so carefully crafted for travellers with and without children. As we said, we’ve been perfecting this mix comfortably for more than half a century.
No other company has our many decades of experience and persnickety, 1,440-minutes-a-day dedication to worry-banishing service and carefree fun.
n Have a private, crowd-free visit specially arranged by Micato at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where we sponsor a baby elephant in your family’s name.
n Amaze the family with a soaring helicopter ride over one of the planet’s eye-poppingest wonders, Victoria Falls.
n Learn to make fire and track big cats with Maasai warriors.
n Commune with colonies of African penguins and Cape fur seals during privately arranged kayaking excursions.
n Ask your kids “Who is Nelson Mandela?” then show them. Follow in his footsteps at Robben Island, where he was imprisoned for nearly two decades.
n See Africa’s herds in an uncommon way… from the back of a friendly horse or camel.
n Get a selfie with that giraffe you’re feeding.
n Watch shooting stars in Africa’s night sky from a custom-designed star bed.
n Jog through the Great Rift Valley alongside a barefooted Maasai warrior... the most memorable workout ever.
n Enjoy youth-themed game drives and ranger programmes at selected lodges. And on every safari, age-appropriate activities and encounters designed just for your family by your Micato Safari Director.
FOR EVERY GUEST ON SAFARI WE SEND A CHILD TO SCHOOL
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Hundreds of thousands of Kenyan children don’t attend school because their families are too poor to pay even the most nominal school fees. In principle, primary education is free in Kenya, but myriad fees often put it beyond reach: parents are obliged to buy their child’s desk; to pay for term exams, the wood for cooking fires, and a portion of the cooks’ salaries. Then there are schoolbooks, uniforms, writing supplies, and notebooks.
All this adds up to many, many thousands of eager and worthy children staying at home.
For almost 40 years, Micato-AmericaShare has been a passionate advocate for East African children and their families. Under the Micato One for One Commitment, simply by signing up for a Micato safari, every guest on every safari sends a child to school—year after year.
Thousands of Kenyan children are able to attend school thanks to our guests who join us in this commitment. Every child deserves an education, and we’re overjoyed to be contributing to this unalienable right.
left : A typically exuberant classroom, led by Peter Mithamo at a school near the MicatoAmericaShare Harambee Centre. Anastasia Pinto summed up the African ethos when she said, “African people will give away their last dollar or loaf of bread to someone who needs it more.”
For almost 40 years— Micato’s tribute to our birth continent has been our nonprofit, Micato-AmericaShare. In the next six pages we’ll tell you what AmericaShare does, but first, here’s why:
It all began with one little boy, going from person to person in a Nairobi shopping centre with a note from his school headmaster. The note said that he was an orphan and needed to raise 700 shillings for a school uniform before he could come to class. He had only collected 100 shillings. The boy approached Micato’s Lorna Macleod. She read the note and handed him the 600 shillings—the equivalent of $15. Tears running down his face, the boy stood there for a moment, said “God bless you,” and dashed away.
At that moment Lorna realized that Micato was an ideal bridge between some of the poorest people on the planet, and some of the wealthiest, our travellers. So we gave that bridge a name: AmericaShare, and have been helping to change lives for the better ever since.
We’re proud of our accolades and of the
life-sparking joy our safariers routinely experience, but as our Managing Director Dennis Pinto often says, “AmericaShare is the why of why we exist.”
It’s not unusual for inspired safari guests to decide on the spot (or back home for that matter) to sponsor a child to attend boarding school. This programme places a child in a carefully vetted boarding school, and provides every resource necessary for that child to graduate high school (and beyond, if the spirit is willing). Many lives, on both sides of the Atlantic, have been changed by this programme.
The heart of Micato-AmericaShare’s Kenya operation is Harambee Centre, a multi-building oasis of calm and purpose in the midst of Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s largest slums (where a staggering 60,000 or more children can’t attend school). Harambee Centre—made possible by our dear friends
I will never forget my first experience of visiting Harambee Centre! It surpassed my expectations; above all I felt very safe around that space despite the fact that everyone was a stranger when I got in but as I was leaving, I felt warm and I thought to myself this looks like a neat family that I would like to be part of.
—Aisha Omar
Bernard Wharton and Jennifer Walsh and scores of caring safari-goers—serves Mukuru residents with a Community Centre; a beautiful, 25,000-volume library—with more than 57,000 yearly visitors—and a flourishing second library, both made possible by Suzie and Bruce Kovner through a grant by the Kovner Foundation; and a digitally up-to-the-minute Computer Centre.
A big, bright room equipped with over 70 computers, visited more than 100,000 times since its inception, Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Computer Centre—enabled by Dr. Derrick Rossi—offers Mukuru residents free computer access and digital skills training.
During a 12-week training programme, 120 students undergo a comprehensive curriculum designed to enhance their computer skills and proficiency in various Microsoft applications, with a module on CV (curriculum vitae) writing. As this is written, more than 300 students are on our waiting list for future classes, and we hope to increase the number of programmes we offer, as the need and demand is great, and the potential rewards for our students is huge.
The dynamic, 25,000-volume Harambee Centre Library is the proud recipient of the Best Community Library Award by the 50-year old Kenya Association of Library and Information Professionals.
To its post-graduates, Micato-AmericaShare offers scholarships that cover the cost of acquiring trade skills or semi-professional certifications or professional degrees.
We partner with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity to bring eye clinics to the community. VOSH doctors examine and treat thousands of children and adults, and donate thousands of prescription eyeglasses.
Lacrosse, a game not played in Kenya, was introduced in Mukuru in June 2014 through an AmericaShare Project by teenager Ian Macleod with support from private donors, businesses, and the International Lacrosse Federation.
At our website, AmericaShare.org, or email us at Inquiries@AmericaShare.org.
Tucked away on the verdant seaward side of the glorious Old Cape Road, south of Cape Town, past the imposing Steenberg Mountains and lovely Simon’s Town, on the way to the Cape of Good Hope, is the community of Red Hill, whose 1,500 makeshift households are blessed with wonderful views, bright community spirit, and not much in the way of community services.
“Micato-AmericaShare’s educational outreach in East Africa inspired us to find a community in South Africa where we can have a lasting impact,” says Lorna Macleod, AmericaShare’s co-founder and executive director. “And at Red Hill, we knew we had found our place.”
That place is AmericaShare’s Red Hill Library
and Community Centre, a joyful place for a town with a single part-time clinic, 37 per cent unemployment, and no school for its more than 2,000 school-age kids, who have to take long bus rides to state schools in the vicinity.
Our bright new, ever-growing library, led by a trained librarian and volunteers who help students with their homework, is a welcoming community meeting place, and our Literacy and Numeracy Programme, designed to equip Red Hill kids with
the skills they’ll need as they enter the educational system, meets every day for two hours.
The Centre’s Computer Lab offers classes to community members of all ages, focussing on Google Classroom assignments, Typing.com, and Tynker coding. And the beautiful, ocean-view Umbono Wempunelelo—View to Success Deck—has become an integral part of Red Hill’s commitment to meeting the needs of young, energetic minds. The deck’s combination of fresh air and sunlight enhances learning experiences, promotes improved focus, creativity, and overall wellbeing.
…safariers to the Cape Peninsula will visit the Red Hill Library and Community Centre, and many of them will be inspired to help it bring more light to the community. They’ll want to make donations like books, computers, or funds for a new building.
So: if you’d like to visit Red Hill, either before or after your Micato safari, or if you’re just inspired by what you’re seeing and reading on these pages, send an email to Inquiries@AmericaShare.org.
This collaboration with Micato-AmericaShare has brought light to our community. Scholars are able to do their homework and research in the library, which provides a great environment for their education and homework clubs. The Forum is also benefitting from having a productive space in which to meet. This project has uplifted the entire community by making resources available to everybody.
African girls who can’t afford sanitary pads very often avoid school during their periods, losing as much as an entire month each school year. The consequences are significant: girls who miss school or work fall behind, drop out or quit, perpetuating a grim cycle of poverty and gender inequality.
Micato is a major donor and proud supporter of Huru, founded in 2008 by AmericaShare’s co-founder Lorna Macleod. Huru manufactures reusable sanitary pads—more than 2,300,000 to date—which have been distributed in free Huru Kits to more than 320,000 girls in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Huru Kits have proven to be a simple, sustainable, and wonderfully practical way to alleviate this worldwide problem.
Each Huru Kit consists of a colourful drawstring backpack with six reusable pads; three pairs of underwear; detergent-grade soap for washing pads; two resealable waterproof bags for safe storage of used pads; and educational materials on HIV prevention and reproductive and sexual health.
Since Huru pads came we are comfortable and we do not feel left out. We are able to attend classes without fear or shame. It brings so much joy to know there are people on earth living far away from you who can rescue you.
—Charity, age 16
All Huru pads are locally produced by women and men from underserved communities, and are designed for the resilient girls and women who use them. Each pad lasts a minimum of 24 months, making them a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to expensive disposables.
The crucial and heartening bottom line: Huru Kits have saved girls 24,000,000 school days (and counting) that otherwise would have been lost. Independent evaluation shows that girls who receive Huru Kits are three times less likely to miss school during their periods.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently entered a groundbreaking partnership with Huru to provide more than 22,000 women in 43 workspaces in Kenya’s crucial garment and horticulture industries with
Huru Kits and educational sessions on menstrual health and sexual and reproductive health topics, and awareness campaigns for 13,600 supervisors to combat menstrual stigma.
About Huru’s important and effective work. And about its highly successful Skills Transfer Program, a targeted, practical programme that addresses East Africa’s huge problem of youth unemployment, which disproportionately impacts girls; 65 per cent of the Skills Transfer Program’s trainees have no income whatsoever. Huru’s informative website is accessible 525,600 minutes a year at HuruInternational.org. And its phone number is: 212-340-7115.
We educate women because it is smart. We educate women because it changes the world.
—Drew
Gilpin Faust, first female president of Harvard University
Our private, hand-crafted Custom Safaris are inspired by a good old British word, bespoke, which brings to mind custom craftsmanship, finicky attention to detail, and, above all, a fruitful collaboration between client and purveyor, with an eye toward creating a unique product . in this case, a safari whose memory will warm the coldest night.
Custom-building safaris is something we do as well as—no, better than anyone in the world. (Why allow modesty to trump accuracy?) Our uniquely large staffs in East and Southern Africa and the U.S., our round-the-clock Concierge Service, and the touchdown-to-takeoff presence on every safari of a top-notch Safari Director are (pardon the accurate immodesty), simply and demonstrably the finest in the safari world.
Micato’s Custom Safari experts are in hour-to-hour touch with the ins and outs, the ups and downs, and the soaring possibilities for private safaris. They have created epically enjoyable Custom Safaris—private and charter jet and helicopter safaris; exclusive stays in private villas and upcountry manor houses on private estates; and highly specialized safaris—for
eager first-timers, connoisseurs, celebrities, college buddies, friends-since-kindergarten, big bubbly families, and avid parties of one.
So whether you’ve always dreamed of going on safari, or if you woke up the other day with the sudden urge to visit Africa, we will tune in to your wishes, your schedules, your budget, your interests and inclinations, and we will work with you to create a Custom Safari that will surpass your dreams and—as a safari so often does—ignite the urge to return one day to bask again in Africa’s golden joys.
The first step of your safari: Call your travel advisor or our Custom consultants at 800-Micato-1 (800-642-2861).
Like a lot of people, we’ve been dreaming of going on safari for a very long time. What we didn’t expect was how Micato could so completely translate our dream into even more wonderful reality. —Oona and Eric Moes
I am hard pressed to think of any reason why one wouldn’t book with Micato.
—Priscilla Alexander, former president, Protravel
A Micato Custom Safari is just that: A unique, expertly hand-crafted experience. With a minimum of eight days, they can be as long, as focused or as free-form, as populous or as private as you like. It’s up to you.
Just a few examples: We’ve delightedly designed Custom wedding and anniversary safaris; archaeological dig safaris with the pioneering Leakey family, long-time friends of Micato and the Pintos; graduation celebration safaris; air safaris led by our old pilot-biologist-educatorexplorer friend Mark Ross; culinary and oenophilic expeditions to Cape Town and its Winelands; and, of course, scores and scores more.
Our sparkling website—Micato.com—is full of inspirations for Custom Safaris. And our small-group Classic Safaris—all of which can easily become a Private Classic—are handy, flexible templates for a Custom Safari. In fact this entire brochure is a grand grab bag of ideas for places to safari; constantly, rigorously vetted camps and lodges to luxuriate in; and activities to be astounded by.
Going on safari is a persistent dream for many—maybe most—travellers. We’ve always thought that the best time to realize an old travel dream is pretty much as soon as possible. So if you’re ready to seize the day, we’re poised to help you turn the dream into resplendent, bespoke reality.
We felt like part of the family and my mom is still talking about her wonderful African adventure and will continue to do so for the rest of her life.
—Janice Ruckmick
Each and every member of your staff should be congratulated often for the lengths they go to, to bring the spirit of Africa to everyone.
—Sharon Fake, Director of Operations, Travel Experts
“Airy dalliances with Africa’s incomparable landscapes,” is how we rhapsodize Flying Over Africa, west of here on page 41. It’s true about our prop plane bush flights, and many would say it’s even truer about helicopter jaunts to places eye-boggling to see from the air, like Victoria Falls or South Africa’s theatric Blyde River Canyon, or Cape Town’s magnificent mix of nature and humanity, to hard-to-reach places like Kenya’s vast Northern Frontier region (with its otherworldly Lake Turkana) or the Laikipia Plateau’s Mount Lolgurugi (where we can enjoy picnic breakfasts on the heights). And many marvelous places and revelatory jaunts in between.
When you talk safari with our experts, you’ll be filled in on helicopter excursions almost as unlimited as Africa’s vast skies.
And as for jets: Arranging, facilitating, and creating private jet safaris has been a Micato
speciality for more than a couple of decades. We know the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the permissions and strip lengths, FOBs and immigration requirements, and we’re masters at untangling and scissoring red tape.
“Elegance,” Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “is that quality that transforms the greatest amount of being into appearance.” All the wonderfully private estates and villas on these pages are superbly luxurious and gorgeous, but what sets them apart is their essence, their very being: a love of Africa, a commitment to service and care, a recognition that the greatest of luxuries is serenity.
Ol Jogi
laikipia plateau, kenya
Forbes cautions guests at Ol Jogi to not get “caught up in the exquisite details,” the “Murano glass globes over lamps, the sumptuous Hermès linens, the perfectly polished Buccellati silver,” but to—not instead, but in addition—savour its “enchanting… incredible and diverse” wildlife. For generations the home of the Wildenstein family, Ol Jogi is quietly luxurious, stunningly situated, and welcoming in the highest African tradition.
Arijiju
laikipia plateau, kenya
Vanity Fair pays tribute to Arijiju’s “sensuous genius,” and for good reason. Overlooking the game lands of the Laikipia Plateau, graced with views of lordly Mount Kenya, the grand estate and home is an epitome of thoughtful luxury, with five gorgeously appointed suites (and a rooftop “Constellation Suite” for sleeping under the stars). It has its own spa, gym, clay tennis courts, extensive sun-dappled gardens, a talented resident chef, and a staff of 14.
laikipia plateau, kenya
Set up on the Laikipia Plateau, presided over by Mount Kenya, the Segera Retreat is a lush oasis whose raised timber and thatch villas look out expansively at the surrounding savannah. A large bedroom and en-suite bathroom occupy each villa’s upper floor; a sun deck and jacuzzi in the private garden offer comfortable lounging and post-game drive relaxing. All of Segera’s villas are graced with expertly chosen original African artwork.
lewa wildlife conservancy , kenya
At the cutting edge of conservation and sustainability, the much-revered Lewa Conservancy is famed for its rigorously protected white and black rhinos, along with its full repertoire of free-ranging African beasts. And Kifaru House’s main lodge and five charming thatched cottages, each a safari villa of its own, are splendid, intimate, and scenic places (glorious Mount Kenya rises just to the south) for a quintessential African experience.
stellenbosch, south africa
Famed for its magnificent setting in the Cape Winelands, for its winery, superb artwork, exquisite cuisine, and luxury lodges, the Delaire Graff Estate is now graced with what it calls its “pinnacle,” the sumptuous Owner’s Villa. Featuring a 45-foot pool, four bedrooms decorated by artworks curated by Laurence Graff from his private collection, and just about every salubrious amenity imaginable, the Owner’s Villa is, quite simply, a Winelands masterpiece.
The Villas at Four Seasons serengeti , tanzania
The five sublimely private villas at the acclaimed Four Seasons Safari Lodge in the northern Serengeti each have their own kitchen and plunge pool and range from one romantic bedroom to the grand, threestorey Presidential Suite’s three (that grand villa has its own chef, and was designed by acclaimed South African architect Francois Theron). All the villas are graced with bespoke, African-chic furnishing and magnificent, floor-to-ceiling views across the Serengeti Plain.
thornybush game reserve, south africa
Set in the private Thornybush Game Reserve adjacent to Kruger, Kubili is an architecturally masterful, five-bedroom villa with its own butler, chef, sous chef, 24-hour concierge, three swimming pools, a spa and steam room, and an animal-magnet waterhole serenely viewable from the House’s many decks. As one visitor wrote, it’s “like an elephant: strong, overwhelming, sensitive, beautiful, faithful, highly intelligent, unforgettable….”
sabi sand game reserve , south africa
Set in the private Sabi Sand Game Reserve, with an unfenced border with Kruger, Cheetah Plains “ratchets up the luxury factor while committing to sustainability,” says The New York Times. Each of its three Plains Houses has four one-bedroom suites, a heated lap pool, lounge, loggia, dining area, a wine gallery, original artwork by some of South Africa’s star artists, its own staff and chef, and a unique experience of private luxury in the bushveld.
kalahari desert, south africa
Once the home of the Oppenheimer family in Tswalu, their private game reserve, the largest in South Africa, Tarkuni’s understated elegance eloquently bespeaks the family’s deep African roots. Set between two mountain ranges in the soul-stirring, animal-rich vastness of the Kalahari, recently redesigned Tarkuni has five beautifully appointed suites, each with an expansive deck that can be converted into a star-bedroom, a lovely pool, a dedicated staff (including a crackerjack chef), and unbounded serenity.
Our 9 East Africa and Southern Africa Classic Safaris (and handy safari extensions) on the next 68 pages speak for themselves—with a tremendous lot of information, enthusiasm, and, we hope, a bit of eloquence. (And if you’d like to know more about our flexibility in tailoring them to your interests and needs, don’t hesitate to call us or your travel advisor.)
These Classics are the distillation of Micato’s three-generations’-worth of African experience, and they’ve been crafted and carefully orchestrated to reflect the newest and best, the deepest and most memorable ways to experience the dreamt-of Africa. (And keep in mind that all these Classic Safaris can easily be made into a Private Classic for families and groups of friends, as we describe on pages 66 and 67.)
Classic Safaris are group safaris designed to be as non-group-like as possible. Our groups are small, averaging 12 members, and as few as two (they can be that nicely unpopulated because of the next item).
We have never, in all our years, cancelled a safari. At the end of each safari’s description, you’ll see a long list of departure dates. So: if you sign up and pay a deposit for the September 25 departure of, say, The Hemingway Wing Safari, it will proceed very happily even if you and your spouse (or family or buddies or whomever you’re safariing with) are the only guests. Guaranteed.
On each Classic Safari your Safari Director will be with you—gently guiding, natural historying, storytelling, and taking care of whatever you need taking care of—from the moment the curtain rises to the warm applause (to be honest, it’s usually an emotional ovation) at safari’s end. (And of course, our unique Concierge Service is on round-the-clock call.)
Remember: there is no tipping, anywhere, anytime, on a Micato trip, Custom, Classic, or Private Classic, not even the traditionally sizeable gratuities to guides and drivers at safari’s end. And all your meals are included, everywhere, all the time.
And all porterage fees, park fees, this-that-orthe-other fees are paid. We’re travellers, too, and we know what a balm it is to have these nagging concerns deftly and definitively erased from our vacationing consciousness. See pages 18-33 for a deeper look at these and more of the many Micato differences.
A great idea that pops up at many a family dinner, a barbecue with friends, or social media post: “Let’s take a trip together!” Our Private Classic Safaris are marvelous ways to turn that idea into resplendent reality.
It’s simple. A phone call will do it. The rest is fine-tuning. You pick one of our 9 Classics, hone in on one of the departure dates listed at the end of each safari description (a lot of choices: each safari departs three or four times a month, year-round), and tell us you want to make it a Private Classic.
To be totally honest, we were a tad nervous about investing so much money on our trip when we started...but by the end of the trip, we ALL were saying how it was all SO worth it. Micato made us feel as though we were their only customers and that anything we needed would be taken care of—that was how focused their support and service for us was!
It’s your own safari departure: just you and your friends or family travelling together— with your own ever-present Safari Director to advise and suggest activities at every destination. You’ll have your own safari vehicles and the freedom to choose when and how long you’ll go on game drives. A full-day game drive? No problem. If you want to track a lion on a hunt or observe a dung beetle decimate a dung pile you can. Within logistical parameters, you determine your days. And your Safari Director is there to make it all happen.
To depart on a safari is not only a physical act, it is also a gesture. You leave behind the worries, the strains, the irritations of life among people under pressure, and enter the world of creatures who are pressed into no moulds, but have only to be themselves; bonds loosen, anxiety fades, the mind closes against the world you left behind like a folding sea anemone.
—Elspeth Huxley, The Flame Trees of Thika
Kenya’s Amboseli, Lewa Conservancy & Maasai Mara • Tanzania’s Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater
15 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Nairobi
�he grand, glamourous, unabashedly luxurious safaris favoured by princes and princesses, potentates, plutocrats, and ex-presidents (Teddy Roosevelt’s epic 1909 safari was one of the first of its sumptuous kind) are central to East Africa’s heritage as one of the world’s most desired destinations. This Grand Safari is Micato’s homage to those old and romantic days, to their indulgent and exquisite grace.
The Micato Grand Safari’s six flights—be sure to see our praise for Flying Over Africa on page 41—make travel between game reserves and luxury camps a seamless, time-saving joy. And our stays in places like the airy Tortilis Camp in Amboseli; Bateleur or Mahali Mzuri in the Maasai Mara; the charmingly luxe Four Seasons Safari Lodge in the Serengeti; and the serene Lewa Safari Camp on the Laikipia Plateau bring us into close and comfortable contact with some of Africa’s richest game lands and most stirring landscapes.
Sitting [by a safari campfire] listening to the lions far out in the darkness was like returning to the really true world again— where I probably once lived 10,000 years ago
—Karen Blixen, in a letter to her mother, Ingeborg Dinesen
Upon arrival in the Kenyan capital, we’ll be met by our Micato Safari Director and driven to Hemingways, a hotel that great lover of Africa would have savoured for its classic African ambience and old-school luxuries.
The next day, we’ll pay a heart-sparking visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Centre, greet Giraffa camelopardalis at the Giraffe Centre, visit the former home of Karen Blixen, author— writing as Isak Dinesen— of Out of Africa, one of the most evocative books ever written about any earthly place. And we’ll have lunch at one of Nairobi’s star restaurants, then tour the excellent National Museum before returning to our hotel, serene Hemingways.
We fly south this morning over the Athi Plains to the natural wonderland of Amboseli National Park. Mount Kilimanjaro, the still-glaciated monarch of Africa, presides over Amboseli, thrusting three dizzying miles above the park’s grasslands. As Peter Matthiessen wrote in The Tree Where Man Was Born, “A snow peak in the tropics draws the heart to a fine shimmering painful point of joy.”
Tortilis Camp is our base for a visit to a Maasai village and game drives in this almost incomparably rich animal kingdom. Our spacious, luxuriously furnished, thatch-covered tents nestle under the huge and reposeful Tortilis acacia trees from which the camp takes its name. Unwinding on our veranda, we might, like Isak Dinesen, watch a parade of elephants “pacing along as if they had an appointment at the end of the world.”
days 6 & 7
The Laikipia Plateau
* 17,057-foot Mount Kenya, seat of Ngai, God himself, is the only mountain in the world to give its name to a country.
We’ll spend our two nights on the airy Laikipia Plateau in one of two superbly designed, intimate camps, Lewa Safari Camp or Loisaba Tented Camp. Both offer vast, unending views over the animal-thronged Plateau, with sightings of wandering elephants, elegant leopards, rare Grevy’s zebras, rhinos, wild dogs, and the full African roster of predators and prey (which we’ll encounter in thrilling close-up during our game drives; those gorgeous leopards sometimes use our safari vehicles as cover as they stalk). Both camps are centred in highly respected conservancies, protecting—in partnership with local communities—an area larger than 20 Manhattans, with massive, but Baryshnikov-nimble giraffes substituting for skyscrapers. And both bask in the aura of lordly Mount Kenya.*
days 8 & 9
The Maasai Mara
This morning we’ll fly over the planetary rumple of the Great Rift Valley—it makes “the Grand Canyon look like a line scratched with a toothpick,” John Gunther wrote in Inside Africa—to the Maasai Mara, the northern sector of the bigger-than-Belgium Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem, unquestionably the earth’s greatest haven for large mammals, more than 70 species of which go about their business in the oceanic Serengeti–Maasai Mara grasslands. Based from equally splendid Bateleur Camp or Mahali Mzuri, we’ll game drive throughout the Mara, spend
rewarding time with the local Maasai people, and make side trips to the Mara River and its tributaries for a gander at leviathan crocodiles and hippos. And we’ll have sundowners in the gentle evening warmth of Ms. Dinesen’s true world, breathing its clean and guileless air, watching Africa’s showy stars come out to dazzle, feeling like we might have dallied in these parts, 10,000 years ago.
On our second day in the Mara, we’ll sweep in a hot-air balloon above the siringet, or the “endless place,” as the Maasai call this great land (normally an additional cost, ballooning on The Micato Grand Safari is part of the luxe experience; see page 129 for some warm words about ballooning in the Mara). And at flight’s end, we’ll savour a sparkling breakfast; we’ll already be a little giddied by the plain’s beauty and our good fortune to be so welcome and at ease in its presence.
days 10 & 11 The Serengeti
We’ll spend our two Serengeti nights in the Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti. The magnificently conceived Four Seasons is set on a fine collection of kopjes, looking out at what seems a golden eternity, with sunrise skies “banded with rose and lemon and the colour of flamingo wings,” as Elspeth Huxley wrote. The vast plain, home of three million or more large mammals—elephants, cheetahs, gazelles by the gazillions, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes “floating across the plain” (thanks, Ms. Dinesen), lions, rhinos and more than 60 more
species inhabit the great grassland, its riverine forests, and bustling, set-piece kopjes, rock islands that pop up from the plain.
The Serengeti—and the Four Seasons—are the kind of African places that Micato loves to introduce our guests to, places that lull us into slowing down as we enter a world where nature expresses itself wholly and the tumults and furies of the larger world are stilled by a million-year calm.
We fly southeast from the unforgettable Serengeti to Lake Manyara—the lake that heart-stirringly erupted with thousands of flamingos in the film Out of Africa. Ernest Hemingway thought, and many of us think, that Manyara is Africa’s loveliest lake. We’ll have splendid views of the lake during lunch at the refreshing Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, and perhaps have time to amble, maybe catching sight of some local predators and sprightly birds.
Now we make the beautiful drive across the Crater Highlands and up to the Ngorongoro Lodge Melia, set on the rain-forested rim of Ngorongoro Crater, one of our solar system’s grandest geographic ornaments.
In The Tree Where Man Was Born, Peter Matthiessen captured one of the crater’s enigmas: “How did the hippopotamus find its way up into the Crater Highlands, to blunder into the waters of Ngorongoro? Today one sees them there with wonder, encircled by steep walls.” Indeed, meandering around the softly lush caldera floor, we may feel like Professor George Edward Challenger and Lord John Roxton in Arthur Conan Doyle’s thriller The Lost World True, we won’t see any Aardonyxes or Zupaysauri, but—as we often say—once you’ve really looked at a rhino, or contemplated the gigantic unlikeliness of an elephant, your old sadness at never having seen a dinosaur will be lightened.
What an incredible experience! Thanks to Micato, my family and I enjoyed a trip we will never forget. We could not have asked for a friendlier, more knowledgeable team. It was truly the adventure of a lifetime. —Cal Ripken
Alan Kaufman
This tour was the most expensive travel adventure we had ever considered, and as we embarked we wondered if the cost would prove to be worth it. Let me assure you that we now not only believe it was worth every penny, but for the dollars spent, consider it a great travel value.
days 14 & 15 Depart Nairobi
After breakfast and a last look at the Edenic lands below, we’ll drive to Lake Manyara and fly to Nairobi, where we’ll have day rooms, and the services of our Safari Director and vehicle, at the Four Points Sheraton, and get a bite—meals and amenities as always included—before being driven to the airport for our late flights back to the Northern Hemisphere.
The Micato Grand can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Tariff 2025
Land arrangements, per person Jan-May November Balance of Year
Occupancy
(Nairobi / Amboseli / Lewa / Maasai Mara / Serengeti / Lake Manyara; Lake Manyara / Nairobi) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Tuesday, returns Tuesday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 07 – Jan. 21
Jan. 14 – Jan. 28
Jan. 21 – Feb. 04
Jan. 28 – Feb. 11
Feb. 04 – Feb. 18
Feb. 11 – Feb. 25
Feb. 18 – Mar. 04
Feb. 25 – Mar. 11
Mar. 04 – Mar. 18
Mar. 11 – Mar. 25
May 13 – May 27
May 20 – June 03
May 27 – June 10
June 03 – June 17
June 10 – June 24
June 17 – July 01
June 24 – July 08
July 01 – July 15
July 08 – July 22
July 15 – July 29
July 22 – Aug. 05
July 29 – Aug. 12
Aug. 05 – Aug. 19
Aug. 12 – Aug. 26
Aug. 19 – Sept. 02
Aug. 26 – Sept. 09
Sept. 02 – Sept. 16
Sept. 09 – Sept. 23
Sept. 16 – Sept. 30
Sept. 23 – Oct. 07
Sept. 30 – Oct. 14
Oct. 07 – Oct. 21
Oct. 14 – Oct. 28
Oct. 21 – Nov. 04 Oct. 28 – Nov. 11
Nov. 04 – Nov. 18
Nov. 11 – Nov. 25
Nov. 18 – Dec. 02 Nov. 25 – Dec. 09
Dec. 02 – Dec. 16
Dec. 09 – Dec. 23
Dec. 16 – Dec. 30
Dec. 23 – Jan. 06 Dec. 30 – Jan. 13
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Tuesday, returns Tuesday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 06 – Jan. 20
Jan. 13 – Jan. 27
Jan. 20 – Feb. 03
Jan. 27 – Feb. 10
Feb. 03 – Feb. 17
Feb. 10 – Feb. 24
Feb. 17 – Mar. 03
Feb. 24 – Mar. 10
Mar. 03 – Mar. 17
Mar. 10 – Mar. 24
May 12 – May 26
May 19 – June 02 May 26 – June 09 June 02 – June 16 June 09 – June 23 June 16 – June 30 June 23 – July 07
June 30 – July 14
July 07 – July 21 July 14 – July 28
July 21 – Aug. 04 July 28 – Aug. 11
Aug. 04 – Aug. 18
Aug. 11 – Aug. 25
Aug. 18 – Sept. 01
Aug. 25 – Sept. 08
Sept. 01 – Sept. 15
Sept. 08 – Sept. 22
Sept. 15 – Sept. 29
Sept. 22 – Oct. 06
Sept. 29 – Oct. 13
27 – Nov. 10
03 – Nov. 17 Nov. 10 – Nov. 24 Nov. 17 – Dec. 01 Nov. 24 – Dec. 08 Dec. 01 – Dec. 15
Oct. 06 – Oct. 20 Oct. 13 – Oct. 27 Oct. 20 – Nov. 03
Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau & Maasai Mara • Tanzania’s Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater & Lake Manyara
14 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Nairobi
�uch is Africa’s allure: that a bright fellow like Hemingway would lie in his tent, homesick before he’d even parted from a place that had come to seem more like home than home itself. We’re told these days to stick to the now, and the here, but Hemingway—like many of us lovers of Africa—knew that sometimes you can’t micromanage your passions. The Hemingway Wing Safari—a cherished favourite of Micato staff—is a tribute, not only to Africa’s tendency to grab hold of our hearts, but also to the old-fashioned and cozy safaris of Hemingway’s time, with three tented camps (a little more luxurious than in Ernest’s day, but he was never one to avoid intelligently offered luxury), good looks at East Africa’s most legendary game parks (and a couple of lesser-known gems), and five swooping flights that bring us into great intimacy with Africa’s landscapes.
All I wanted to do now was get back to Africa. We had not left it, yet, but when I would wake in the night I would lie, listening, homesick for it already
—Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
day 1 En route
days 2 & 3 Nairobi
We’ll be met by our Micato Safari Director and whisked away to the serene, jet lag-banishing Kempinski Villa Rosa. We’ll visit the impressive National Museum of Kenya, make a joyously inspirational visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Centre, visit the Giraffe Centre, lunch at one of Nairobi’s most delightfully cutting-edge restaurants, and pay our respects at the home of Out of Africa’s Isak Dinesen (who wrote as Karen Blixen; Hemingway said more than once that she should have received the Nobel Prize for literature instead of him).
days 4 & 5 The Laikipia Plateau
We fly north from Nairobi to the Laikipia Plateau. It’s a short, but momentous flight, taking us from Nairobi’s urban whirl to a vast, animal-abounding wilderness graced with views of the more-thaniconic Mount Kenya and the monumental clouds that seem to drift up from its 17,000-foot summit. We are, gleefully, in the Africa we’ve been carrying
around in our imagination since we were children. Our haven in this marvelous world-of-its-own is the excellent Mutara Camp, set high atop a cliff overlooking the Plateau, and the only camp (or lodge or pretty much any modern artifact) in the 20,000-acre Mutara Conservancy, a fruitful partnership between the local people and Mutara’s diligently eco- and heritage-aware owners. Spiraling down from the clifftop, we make game drives in Laikipia, encountering in solitude its fabulous plentitude of large (and cunningly small) mammals (all the Big Five, including some especially svelte leopards) who are just the headliners in a fabulous cast of very natural, very intriguing characters. (Some travellers, having seen and appreciated the Big Five, begin a more difficult search for the Little Five, whose identities we will divulge a little east of here, in Tanzania Spectacular.)
There is no feeling like being absolutely alone with creation . . . with nothing spoiled or sullied or abused. . . . A whole world revolves in balance with itself more perfect than the finest symphony.
—Elspeth Huxley, The Mottled Lizard
days 6 & 7
The Maasai Mara
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices
South by air to the Maasai Mara, the northern reaches of the Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem, earth’s richest wildlife habitat. Our base for explorations in the fabled Mara is the Olare Mara Kempinski, a small tented camp in the soothingly luxurious Kempinski style. Olare Mara’s tents are built on wooden platforms on the banks of the Ntiakitiak River, giving us veranda views of hippos galumphing and elephants joyously bathing in the river. And it’s a great jumping-off place for extraordinary game drives in the mixed land- and waterscapes of the Mara. We’ll visit a traditional Maasai village as we wend our way through this natural wonderland, the kind of place that moved Hemingway to write, “I loved this country and I felt at home and where a man feels at home, outside of where he’s born, is where he’s meant to go.”
days 8 & 9 The Serengeti
“How can one convey the power of Serengeti?” asked Cyril Connolly in The Evening Colonnade. “It is an immense, limitless lawn, under a marquee of sky. The light is dazzling, the air delectable; kopjes rise out of the grass at far intervals, some wooded; the magic of the American prairie here blends with the other magic of the animals as they existed before man.”
The Serengeti sometimes does remind us of the American prairie, but in truth it can’t be compared with any other place on earth. Its kopje-dotted landscape, its vast and billowing skies, and especially its astounding wealth of wildlife make it one-of-agorgeous-kind. Flying via Nairobi and Arusha, we reach our base, Migration Camp, on the hippo-haven Grumeti River. Known for its superb tents (which, one traveller wrote, “have only one thing in common with normal tents: canvas”) and its dramatic setting in rocky outcrops, Migration Camp is revered for its tranquillity (something of a Serengeti speciality).
The amazing thing was that your staff acted as though we were the only people in the world and that all their efforts were on our behalf. We were pampered. They were unbelievably caring and helpful. As we moved from place to place, we realized that everyone with Micato is caring and helpful. We were entertained, instructed, educated, and advanced along the way by the nicest group of guides and drivers that we could ever imagine. —Bill and Lee Shewry
Hemingway thought “the loveliest lake in Africa.”
The lake is a birder’s heaven, (it’s frequented by 300 migratory species)*, and the water from its Crater Highlands-supplied springs makes it a forested redoubt for all the most glamourous large mammals, including the famed Manyara tree-climbing lions. (It’s a little irreverent, but tree-lounging might be a better description.)
* Manyara especially, but all of East Africa, is an avian wonderland. One of our many birdfancying safariers offers a representative tale:
“Lilac-breasted rollers are among the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in Africa, anywhere, anytime. And I was mesmerized once watching a kingfisher power-dive into a river several times in succession, and when he came up with a fish in his beak on the third try, three of us broke into applause spontaneously.” days 10–12 Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater
We take a picturesque flight from the Serengeti to Lake Manyara, then drive to our base for the next three nights, the lovely Cape Dutch style cottages and suites of Ngororongoro Melia, set mellifluously in an Arabica coffee estate next to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. And then we’ll wend our scenic way up from the Manor to the rim of one of earth’s wonders, the great, green, animal-nurturing caldera of a once catastrophically cranky, now beneficently mellow volcano, the planetarily unique Ngorongoro.
We’re at Vail and Aspen altitudes of well over 7,000 feet, and being up that high, figuratively and actually, we may recall Isak Dinesen’s words in Out of Africa, “The air of the African highlands went to my head like wine, I was all the time slightly drunk with it.” And then we zoom down a couple of thousand feet to the Lost World’s lush and park-like floor (but which, make no mistake, is an animal, not a human, kingdom) for a day’s game viewing and a festive bush picnic. And we’ll game drive and view-catch at Lake Manyara, which our guy Ernest
days 13 & 14
Nairobi and homeward bound
We’ll rest up—with our Safari Director and vehicle on call—before our late evening flights at a fullservice, meals-included day room at the Four Points Sheraton, with some time to shop, or just kick back and savour the first, fresh memories of a classic African safari.
Tariff 2025 Land arrangements, per person
(Nairobi / Laikipia / Maasai Mara / Serengeti / Lake Manyara; Lake Manyara / Nairobi) Connections may apply.
The Hemingway Wing can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Thursday, returns Wednesday
Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 02 – Jan. 15
Jan. 09 – Jan. 22
Jan. 16 – Jan. 29
Jan. 23 – Feb. 05
Jan. 30 – Feb. 12
Feb. 06 – Feb. 19
Feb. 13 – Feb. 26
Feb. 20 – Mar. 05
Feb. 27 – Mar. 12
Mar. 06 – Mar. 19
Mar. 13 – Mar. 26
May 15 – May 28 May 22 – June 04
May 29 – June 11
June 05 – June 18
June 12 – June 25
June 19 – July 02
June 26 – July 09
July 03 – July 16
July 10 – July 23
July 17 – July 30 July 24 – Aug. 06
July 31 – Aug. 13
Aug. 07 – Aug. 20
Aug. 14 – Aug. 27
Aug. 21 – Sept. 03
Aug. 28 – Sept. 10
Sept. 04 – Sept. 17
Sept. 11 – Sept. 24
Sept. 18 – Oct. 01
Sept. 25 – Oct. 08
Oct. 02 – Oct. 15 Oct. 09 – Oct. 22
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Thursday, returns Wednesday
New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 01 – Jan. 14
Jan. 08 – Jan. 21
Jan. 15 – Jan. 28
Jan. 22 – Feb. 04
Jan. 29 – Feb. 11
Feb. 05 – Feb. 18
Feb. 12 – Feb. 25
Feb. 19 – Mar. 04
Feb. 26 – Mar. 11
Mar. 05 – Mar. 18
Mar. 12 – Mar. 25
May 14 – May 27
May 21 – June 03
May 28 – June 10
June 04 – June 17
June 11 – June 24
June 18 – July 01
June 25 – July 08
July 02 – July 15
July 09 – July 22
July 16 – July 29
July 23 – Aug. 05
July 30 – Aug. 12
Aug. 06 – Aug. 19
Aug. 13 – Aug. 26
Aug. 20 – Sept. 02
Aug. 27 – Sept. 09
Sept. 03 – Sept. 16
Sept. 10 – Sept. 23
Sept. 17 – Sept. 30
Sept. 24 – Oct. 07
Oct. 01 – Oct. 14
Oct. 08 – Oct. 21
Oct. 15 – Oct. 28
Oct. 22 – Nov. 04
Oct. 29 – Nov. 11
Nov. 05 – Nov. 18
Nov. 12 – Nov. 25
Nov. 19 – Dec. 02
Nov. 26 – Dec. 09
Dec. 03 – Dec. 16
Dec. 10 – Dec. 23
Dec. 17 – Dec. 30
Dec. 24 – Jan. 06
Dec. 31 – Jan. 13
�16 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Nairobi
he Stanley Wing, named for the iconic 19th-century Africa explorer Henry Morton Stanley, may be Micato’s most comprehensive and popular safari. We range through East Africa widely and leisurely, from Nairobi into the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro in southern Kenya and farther into Tanzania, with luxuriously long stays in some of the continent’s most treasured and exhilarating game parks. The Stanley Wing is a matchless introduction to the dreamt-of Africa; it’s also a marvelous way to experience that Africa yet again. Stanley, a world celebrity for finding Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 after a gruesome 700-mile trek from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika (he legendarily greeted the famed missionary with the words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”), still ignites controversy among historians (they don’t call you Bula Matari—Breaker of Rocks— for your mild manners). But a couple of things about him are sure. He was a very tough fellow, and he was hopelessly enthralled by Africa and the “sweet and novel pleasure of indifference to all things earthly” that it offers the traveller, “one of the most soul-lulling pleasures a mortal can enjoy.”
I thought...of Africa, not a particular place, but a shape...and the shape of course, is roughly that of the human heart.
—Graham Greene, Journey Without Maps
day 1 En route
days 2 & 3 Nairobi
After landing in Nairobi, we’ll be escorted through the formalities by Micato staff and driven to our hotel in the heart of the capital city, the Kempinski Villa Rosa, much lauded for its service, cuisine, and weary-traveller-soothing serenity. (Just another of the many Micato Differences: amazingly smooth and quick touchdown-to-hotel transitions.)
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices at every safari location.
The next day, we’ll see the soul-stirring MicatoAmericaShare Harambee Centre and also visit the National Museum, the Giraffe Centre (where we’ll hand-feed endangered Rothschild giraffes), and Karen Blixen’s home just outside of Nairobi. In 1937, Baroness Blixen (under the pen name Isak Dinesen) published Out of Africa, which many of us consider the most heart-stirring book ever written about the continent. And after a leisurely, jet-lag soothing lunch at one of Nairobi’s stylish restaurants, we’ll return to the Kempinski Villa Rosa inspired by hospitality, good food, and fine conversation, eager and ready to embark on a classic African safari.
days 4 & 5 Amboseli
A morning flight—see page 41 for more about these flights—from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport takes us south to Amboseli National Park,
dominated by gargantuan Mount Kilimanjaro, which rises suddenly to over 19,000 feet, 15,000 of them above Amboseli’s acacia-dotted grasslands. (Local people didn’t think that God, or gods, lived on Kilimanjaro. They more or less thought the mountain was God; casting your eyes on the still-glacier-topped behemoth, you can see why.) During our game drives out of wonderfully decorated Ol Tukai Lodge, we’ll marvel at our first good looks at what is probably Africa’s largest population of free-ranging elephants, along with the Cape buffalo, impalas, lions, cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, and wildebeest who—in addition to two score or more other mammal species—make their domicile in and around the park.
Today we drive south into Tanzania for lunch at the bustling, very African town of Arusha, then fly to Tarangire National Park, celebrated for the diversity of its wildlife (which includes tree-snoozing lions), its world-class collection of more than 550 bird species, and its outlandishly towering termite mounds, which may not sound terribly impressive, but are just about guaranteed to elevate termites to the top of any traveller’s pantheon of amazing insects. We’ll enjoy a fine overnight at Tarangire Sopa Lodge, tucked away in a verdant valley, with enchanting views of Tarangire’s trademark baobab-studded landscapes. (And we may spend a post-game drive afternoon basking in the Sopa Lodge’s marvelous pool, set just above a nicely dramatic gorge.)
After a morning game drive and breakfast we make a memorable drive west, to the fabled Lost World of the Ngorongoro Crater, a volcanic bowl abounding with life and beauty, unknown to the outside world until 1892 (which helps account for its wealth of wildlife, everything from a burgeoning lion population to fine stands of flamingos).
Our serene and luxe safari abode, the colonialstyle Oldeani Mountain Lodge, is graced with enthralling, full-circle views of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We’ll make a day’s game drive up to the crater’s dramatic rim and down to its flat, 100-square-mile floor, hundreds of feet below. Ngorongoro is a mesmerizing, eventful place, one of the world’s largest volcanic calderas, not to mention its most beautiful, and animal-thronged.
We’ll stop by the Olduvai Gorge, a rocky spur of the Rift Valley, where the Leakey family’s discoveries in the last century convinced the scientific world that humanity arose in East Africa. (“It’s a splendid spot, Olduvai Gorge,” Theo Cruz wrote, “but it’s a good thing our ancestors wanted a peek at someplace else.”) Then it’s on to the Serengeti, a vast and fabled plain the great writer and roustabout Beryl Markham said was “as warm with life as the waters of a tropic sea.” From our base at the airy Serengeti Explorer, deep in the heart of the world’s most important large animal migration corridor, we make rolling forays into the plain, on the lookout for the 70 large mammal species who inhabit this most noble swatch of planet Earth.
* You sometimes see Maasai written Masai (as, unfortunately, in the Masai Mara National Reserve). Maa is the language spoken by the Maasai and the Samburu, so it should always be Maasai with two a’s.
We think of the Maasai Mara as the Africa of our imagination, brought to joyous life.* Rolling grasslands, expressive acacia trees, sweeping vistas teeming with wildlife, and one of Africa’s common and unforgettable sights: “the cumulus clouds that drift all day long across a sun-filled sky,” Elspeth Huxley wrote in The Flame Trees of Thika, “remind[ing] me of huge swirls of whipped cream.” (Those sunny skies and grand landscapes inspire us to consider a hot-air balloon option while we’re in the Mara. For a strongly stated opinion about Mara balloon rides, see page 129.)
We fly to the Mara via Arusha and Nairobi, then motor to our halcyon tented camp, the riverside
Olare Mara Kempinski. And after unfailingly exciting game drives, we’ll enjoy sundowners looking out at the vital yet deeply pacific Mara.
We bid farewell to the Mara and wing our way to the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club, entrancingly close to Africa’s second-highest and most classically comely mountain, the glaciated, 17,000-foot Mount Kenya.
The Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club— created in the late 1950s by actor William Holden and a bunch of fellow Africaphiles—has been visited by innumerable dignitaries, stars, and panjandrums, and we’ll feel rather stellar ourselves during our two nights in upgraded deluxe Club Level rooms. The Safari Club is a continental centre of relaxation, and, if relaxing gets too relaxing, many activities like trout fishing and tennis are close at hand. And on the Equator-straddling
9-hole golf course we can stroll across the hemispheres during play. We’ll also have a chance to visit the club’s animal orphanage and the nearby Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home to a healthy coterie of rhinos, plus its Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary (Kenya’s only chimp haven), operated in conjunction with the Jane Goodall Foundation.
Prior to our late night flights homeward, we’ll have a full-service, meals-included day room at the Four Points Sheraton, with our Safari Director and vehicle promptly on call.
The Stanley Wing can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
It is a challenge to determine where to begin in our praise of Micato. . . . We are seasoned travelers, taking an average three to four significant trips annually. I can say without reservation that we have never had a single travel experience that we haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. However, having said that, we can also state unequivocally that our Stanley Wing Safari with Micato transcends any journey that we have ever taken. —Gary and Linda Kaplan
Tariff 2025 Land arrangements, per person Jan-May November Balance of Year Double Occupancy $28,950 $30,550 $31,550
(Nairobi / Amboseli; Arusha / Tarangire; Serengeti / Maasai Mara / Mt. Kenya / Nairobi) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Monday, returns Tuesday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 06 – Jan. 21
Jan. 13 – Jan. 28
Jan. 20 – Feb. 04
Jan. 27 – Feb. 11
Feb. 03 – Feb. 18
Feb. 10 – Feb. 25
Feb. 17 – Mar. 04
Feb. 24 – Mar. 11
Mar. 03 – Mar. 18
May 12 – May 27
May 19 – June 03
May 26 – June 10
June 02 – June 17
June 09 – June 24
June 16 – July 01
June 23 – July 08
June 30 – July 15
July 07 – July 22
July 14 – July 29
July 21 – Aug. 05
July 28 – Aug. 12 Aug. 04 – Aug. 19
Aug. 11 – Aug. 26
Aug. 18 – Sept. 02
Aug. 25 – Sept. 09
Sept. 01 – Sept. 16
Sept. 08 – Sept. 23
Sept. 15 – Sept. 30
Sept. 22 – Oct. 07
Sept. 29 – Oct. 14
Oct. 06 – Oct. 21
Oct. 13 – Oct. 28
Oct. 20 – Nov. 04
Oct. 27 – Nov. 11
Nov. 03 – Nov. 18
Nov. 10 – Nov. 25
Nov. 17 – Dec. 02
Nov. 24 – Dec. 09
Dec. 01 – Dec. 16
Dec. 08 – Dec. 23
Dec. 15 – Dec. 30
Dec. 22 – Jan. 06
Dec. 29 – Jan. 13
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Monday, returns Tuesday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 05 – Jan. 20
Jan. 12 – Jan. 27
Jan. 19 – Feb. 03
Jan. 26 – Feb. 10
Feb. 02 – Feb. 17
Feb. 09 – Feb. 24
Feb. 16 – Mar. 03
Feb. 23 – Mar. 10
Mar. 02 – Mar. 17
May 11 – May 26
May 18 – June 02
May 25 – June 09
June 01 – June 16
June 08 – June 23
June 15 – June 30
June 22 – July 07 June 29 – July 14
July 06 – July 21
July 13 – July 28
July 20 – Aug. 04
July 27 – Aug. 11 Aug. 03 – Aug. 18
Aug. 10 – Aug. 25
Aug. 17 – Sept. 01
Aug. 24 – Sept. 08
Aug. 31 – Sept. 15
Sept. 07 – Sept. 22
Sept. 14 – Sept. 29
Sept. 21 – Oct. 06
Sept. 28 – Oct. 13
Oct. 05 – Oct. 20
Oct. 12 – Oct. 27
Oct. 19 – Nov. 03
Oct. 26 – Nov. 10
Nov. 02 – Nov. 17
Nov. 09 – Nov. 24
Nov. 16 – Dec. 01 Nov. 23 – Dec. 08
Nov. 30 – Dec. 15
Dec. 07 – Dec. 22
Dec. 14 – Dec. 29
Dec. 21 – Jan. 05
Dec. 28 – Jan. 12
Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater & Serengeti
10 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Arusha
�e bow to the fact:
Many of us are firmly engaged in a very busy world, a world in which time away from the busyness is precious. And so we offer this safari to three major contributors to the East African mystique: the classic game lands of Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the fabled Serengeti—all in a mere but marvelous 10 days. We begin with the sudden, serendipitous serenity of the Arusha Coffee Lodge, and then we’re off on a carefully choreographed safari, with two nights in each of the three camps and lodges we’ve chosen for their warmth of spirit, their invigorating calm, their location, their refreshing lack of busyness.
When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find it is the same in all her music.
—Isak
Dinesen, Out of Africa
day 1 En route
day 2 Arrive in Arusha
Arusha Coffee Lodge, an old-fashioned island of quietude tucked away in a plantation, is a great place to unwind after the rigours of long flights. Arusha is only 3 degrees south of the equator, but its 4,500-foot elevation encourages floral luxuriance and gentle airs. So we’ll be more or less surrounded by enthusiastic greenery as we sit on our Plantation Suite’s veranda—perhaps after a relaxing swim—looking up at massive Mount Meru, a 14,977-foot volcanic colossus that looms beneficently over this quintessentially African city.
days 3 & 4 Tarangire
After a breakfast topped off by some of the freshest and best coffee we’ll ever imbibe, we’ll be briefed by our Safari Director and set off on a marvelously African drive to Tarangire and our home for the next couple of nights, Tarangire Treetops. Our first experience of luxury life in the bush couldn’t be more spectacular. Treetops’ main lodge, built around a thousand-year-old baobab, is only the beginning. The lodge’s 20 famous, lovingly crafted tree houses, elevated for sweeping views of the park, are extraordinarily large, airy, and utterly magical.
And from our tree house’s balcony, we look out at Tarangire’s wonderfully varied landscapes of rocky outcrops, rolling hills, and golden savannah generously strewn with acacias and baobabs, home to just about the entire cast of wild African characters—and some rare stars, like kudu and oryx— in addition to 2,500 or so elephants. We’ll spend a day in the bush discovering the big game and spying dozens of species of birds cavorting in the trees of Tarangire, and, if we’re still keen to see more all-star creatures, we can go out on a night drive, always a revelation.
The drive from Tarangire north to the Crater Highlands and the world-wondrous Ngorongoro Crater is a delight, a dazzlingly scenic game drive. We pass Lake Manyara, then begin our climb to the Crater’s rim and the reposeful Ngorongoro Lodge Melia
We’ll drive down into the crater for an extraordinarily rewarding full day game drive, exploring the caldera’s 100 square miles, spotting lions, elephants, black rhinos, just about all of East Africa’s faunal celebrities, and return to the lodge for quiet, viewbesotted sundowners, followed by a lovely dinner overlooking one of the world’s most magical places.
We end this short, but undeniably spectacular, safari in the Serengeti. “There is a lightening of the spirit,” Cyril Connolly wrote about the vast plain. We’re invited to a rare, deep-rootedly serene idyll. The sky is huge and blue and as pure as the day the earth was born. (And on the southern horizon, over the Crater Highlands—“That’s Ngorongoro, just behind that big green mountain,” we’ll say knowledgeably,
affectionately—clouds pile up in grandly crazy towers, looking like computer-generated special effects.) The Serengeti’s kopjes are the creation of a cosmic bonsai master, and on a flat brown rock atop one of them, a lion rolls over and warms its fluffy white belly in the sun.
We’ll spend two idyllic Serengeti nights in Migration Camp, tucked away in kopje-esque rocks just above the Grumeti River. The main lodge has a split-level lounge, a swimming pool, and a dandy restaurant, and each of Migration Camp’s 20 tents is encircled by a deck, a private sanctuary from which to gaze out at the natural extravaganza below and beyond. Those of us who can’t quite believe that hippos really exist—that’s how otherworldly they sometimes seem—are delighted that rumbling pods of them disport on the Grumeti, along with many single-minded crocodiles; the great migration funnels into a crossing of this river, and the crocs bide their time like the pleistocenic beasts they are.
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices at every safari location.
Your people are knowledgeable, kind, funny, and lovely. Thank you Micato. —Lisa and Richard Troska
After a final game drive, we’ll head back to Migration Camp for breakfast. Maybe we’re close to sighting the Little Five, and need just a little luck to complete the list. We promised to divulge their identities on page 78, and here are the mini-masterpieces: rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver, leopard tortoise (not so mini, really; they can weigh as much as three standard bowling balls), ant lion, and the extremely shy elephant shrew, which weighs not much more than an elephant’s tear.
In any case, it’s time to say goodbye to the Serengeti and Tanzania’s spectacular bush. We fly back to Arusha, relax in day rooms at the Arusha Coffee Lodge, maybe take a pre-flight swim, and board our homebound planes in the evening.
I can watch elephants (and elephants alone) for hours at a time. . There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea. —Peter
At each camp we would meet other travelers and the talk would eventually come around to their safari company. When they heard about the quality service we were experiencing, you could see them turn green with envy. To say that this was the best trip I could ever have expected is an understatement. I cannot find a flaw in your system.
—Jim Paul
Tanzania Spectacular can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Tariff 2025
Land arrangements, per person
Jan-May November Balance of Year
Double Occupancy
Single Supplement 3,050 3,050 3,150
Internal Flights 750 750 950
(Lake Manyara / Serengeti / Arusha) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Tuesday
Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 05 – Jan. 14
Jan. 12 – Jan. 21
Jan. 19 – Jan. 28
Jan. 26 – Feb. 04
Feb. 02 – Feb. 11
Feb. 09 – Feb. 18
Feb. 16 – Feb. 25
Feb. 23 – Mar. 04
Mar. 02 – Mar. 11
Mar. 09 – Mar. 18
Mar. 16 – Mar. 25
May 18 – May 27
May 25 – June 03
June 01 – June 10
June 08 – June 17
June 15 – June 24
June 22 – July 01
June 29 – July 08
July 06 – July 15
July 13 – July 22
July 20 – July 29
July 27 – Aug. 05
Aug. 03 – Aug. 12
Aug. 10 – Aug. 19
Aug. 17 – Aug. 26
Aug. 24 – Sept. 02
Aug. 31 – Sept. 09
Sept. 07 – Sept. 16
Sept. 14 – Sept. 23
Sept. 21 – Sept. 30
Sept. 28 – Oct. 07
Oct. 05 – Oct. 14
Oct. 12 – Oct. 21
Oct. 19 – Oct. 28
Oct. 26 – Nov. 04
Nov. 02 – Nov. 11
Nov. 09 – Nov. 18
Nov. 16 – Nov. 25
Nov. 23 – Dec. 02
Nov. 30 – Dec. 09
Dec. 07 – Dec. 16
Dec. 14 – Dec. 23
Dec. 21 – Dec. 30
Dec. 28 – Jan. 06
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Tuesday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 04 – Jan. 13
Jan. 11 – Jan. 20
Jan. 18 – Jan. 27
Jan. 25 – Feb. 03
Feb. 01 – Feb. 10
Feb. 08 – Feb. 17
Feb. 15 – Feb. 24
Feb. 22 – Mar. 03
Mar. 01 – Mar. 10
Mar. 08 – Mar. 17
Mar. 15 – Mar. 24
May 17 – May 26 May 24 – June 02 May 31 – June 09
June 07 – June 16
June 14 – June 23
June 21 – June 30 June 28 – July 07
July 05 – July 14
July 12 – July 21
July 19 – July 28
July 26 – Aug. 04
Aug. 02 – Aug. 11
Aug. 09 – Aug. 18
Aug. 16 – Aug. 25
Aug. 23 – Sept. 01
Aug. 30 – Sept. 08
Sept. 06 – Sept. 15
Sept. 13 – Sept. 22
Sept. 20 – Sept. 29
Sept. 27 – Oct. 06
Oct. 04 – Oct. 13 Oct. 11 – Oct. 20
Oct. 18 – Oct. 27
Oct. 25 – Nov. 03 Nov. 01 – Nov. 10 Nov. 08 – Nov. 17 Nov. 15 – Nov. 24 Nov. 22 – Dec. 01
–
Tanzania’s Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater & Serengeti Kenya’s Maasai Mara
12 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Nairobi
�he names alone are magic: The Serengeti. Ngorongoro Crater. The Maasai Mara. We’re reminded that when we travel, we visit names as well as places—names with romantic heft, names that resound, names that may have captivated us for many years. Names like Ngorongoro .
(Then again, if we’d never heard that sonorous name, and we made the exhilarating drive up the flank of the old volcano and reached its rim and suddenly beheld the green and animal-thronged crater far below, Ngorongoro would be just as utterly amazing.)
In less than two weeks, The Heart of Kenya and Tanzania introduces us—or re-introduces us—to places with famous names, but most of all, it brings us to fantastic places, fantastic in the sense that their like is to be found exactly nowhere else on earth.
All our lives we’ve seen these animals in captivity or on a screen. Now we see them in wilderness, propelled by the force of their evolution; at last they’re able to tell us what they are, who they are.
—Mary Marenka Poxon, in a letter to her sister, Eileen Borzencki
days 2 & 3
After arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, we’ll be met by our Safari Director and driven to the Kempinski Villa Rosa, exactly the kind of place a fatigued traveller looks forward to. During our day in Nairobi, we’ll meet sassy pachyderms at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, consort with the world’s tallest terrestrial animal at the Giraffe Centre, make a pilgrimage to the home of Karen Blixen— aka Isak Dinesen, one of Africa’s supreme laureates—and we’ll pay rewarding visits to some of Nairobi’s (deservedly) fashionable restaurants; the city’s culinary scene is a pleasant surprise for many first-time visitors.
We’ll tour the informative National Museum, visit the inspiring Micato-AmericaShare Harambee Centre, and after lunch fly in early afternoon from Nairobi to northern Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro International Airport. We fly onward to Tarangire National Park and the Tarangire Sopa Lodge, a classic example of beautifully designed modern lodge architecture.
Tarangire is an apt place to begin a wildlife safari. Home to just about all the headliner beasts, including a large and robust elephant population, Tarangire also shelters such rarities as the fringe-eared oryx and the long-necked gerenuk, a particularly winsome and creatively constructed antelope. Tarangire charms us with its exemplary African landscapes: acacia trees, brawny brown hills, sweeping vistas, clear nights
of “soft velvet,” as Elspeth Huxley wrote. “[Like] a warm conservancy whose great dome was encrusted with all the diamonds in the world, and all the scents in the world were there too, changing like currents in the sea.”
We drive from Tarangire to the green Crater Highlands, weaving our way to the serene and view-rich Oldeani Mountain Lodge, from which we’ll make a full-day game drive into the Ngorongoro Crater.
As geologic masterpieces go, Ngorongoro has had quite a career. It’s been a gigantic peak, perhaps a rival of Kilimanjaro, and, after it blew its snowy top in what must have been a rather impressive explosion (our forefathers over at the nearby Olduvai Gorge, busy getting their humanoid act together, probably saw it), Ngorongoro spent many millennia as an alternately quiet and occasionally bubbling lava lake. Now in an extended pacific mood, the crater is home to upwards of 25,000 personality-rich animals, who roam—as we will—over a sweetly lush area larger than 76 Central Parks.
After stopping at Olduvai, the symbolic wellspring of our DNA, we drop down to the Serengeti, the
known universe’s largest (and, happily for us, most wonderfully watchable) collection of illustrious mammals: elephants, giraffes, tumbling pool-fuls of hippos, elegantly slinking serval cats, zebras with incredibly muscular haunches (leading us to wonder why they were never ridden—very weak backs, that’s why), and scores of species more, all of them going about their business unconcerned by the likes of us. (“But make no mistake,” an old Africa hand once wrote, “these aren’t theme parks. The truest owners of these lands are the animals who roam them free and, if that’s their nature, fiercely.”)
* If there were a Guinness Book of Best Sunsets and Sunrises, the Serengeti’s would be near the top of the list; one morning we saw a cloud on the horizon lit so incandescently by the still-hidden sun that it was almost too bright to look at directly.
We’ll soak up the essence of the Serengeti from the Serengeti Explorer, set on an escarpment overlooking the seemingly limitless plains, enjoying a sundowner after a game drive, watching clouds build up as the day cools, big clouds that “look like you could scoop them up with a spoon,” Elspeth Huxley wrote.*
days 9 & 10 The Maasai Mara
We fly back to Kilimanjaro International, then to Nairobi, and on to the Kenyan section of the Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem, a world treasure, one with no counterpart, anywhere. (During humanity’s tenure, the closest any place on earth has come to equaling the Serengeti’s incredible wealth of wildlife may be paleolithic Siberia, with the ancient North American Plains another contender.) The size of Vermont (with Liechtenstein thrown in for good measure), the Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem is, amongst much else, famed for the dramatic migration of its 1,000,000-plus wildebeest and 750,000-or-so zebras (and the intense attention that migration gets from predators, both mammalian and reptilian). Though the migration reaches seasonal crescendos, the movement of animals—north after the Long Rains,
south as the rains return to nourish the southern plains—is more or less continual, and the sight of a two- or three-mile-long train of animals on the move is extremely memorable.
Up here in the system’s north, the landscapes are grandly varied but tend to be more green (which is why the migration heads here, searching for water), with somewhat less savannah than in the south. We’ll be staying in the heart of the Mara North Conservancy, at small, elegant Elewana Elephant Pepper Camp, wonderfully secluded in a luxuriant grove of fig and elephant pepper trees. Game viewing here is superb, with the full and vibrant roster of Africa’s fabulous beasts in residence. And we’d feel remiss not noting optional and thrilling balloon excursions; wafting over the Mara in the piercingly fresh and golden morning, floating over elephants and hippos, feeling a mild and worthy intoxication-by-grandeur, is one of those things that, having done, we wonder how on earth we ever contemplated not doing.
I had time after time watched the progression across the plain of the Giraffe, in their queer, inimitable, vegetative gracefulness, as if it were not a herd of animals but a family of rare, long-stemmed, speckled gigantic flowers slowly advancing.
—Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa
days 11 & 12 Nairobi and onward
We fly back to Nairobi in the morning for some relaxation at a full-service, meals-included day room at the Four Points Sheraton, with our Safari Director and vehicle at the ready for outings before our flights home.
The Heart of Kenya and Tanzania can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
It certainly was a new experience to receive so much attention from a company owner. The personal touch of Jane Pinto and her sister Dulu was very much appreciated. And our driver Frederick was so warm and amiable that we thought we were traveling with a friend. We were especially moved by the enthusiasm and dedication of Roba, our Safari Director. It was beyond a vacation or even a dream.
—Roger, Julia, and David True
Land arrangements, per person Jan-May November Balance of Year Double Occupancy $20,750 $21,950 $22,750 Single Supplement 1,850
(Nairobi / Arusha / Tarangire; Serengeti / Maasai Mara / Nairobi) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Wednesday, returns Sunday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 01 – Jan. 12
Jan. 08 – Jan. 19
Jan. 15 – Jan. 26
Jan. 22 – Feb. 02
Jan. 29 – Feb. 09
Feb. 05 – Feb. 16
Feb. 12 – Feb. 23
Feb. 19 – Mar. 02
Feb. 26 – Mar. 09
Mar. 05 – Mar. 16
Mar. 12 – Mar. 23
May 14 – May 25
May 21 – June 01
May 28 – June 08
June 04 – June 15
June 11 – June 22
June 18 – June 29
June 25 – July 06
July 02 – July 13
July 09 – July 20
July 16 – July 27
July 23 – Aug. 03
July 30 – Aug. 10
Aug. 06 – Aug. 17
Aug. 13 – Aug. 24
Aug. 20 – Aug. 31
Aug. 27 – Sept. 07
Sept. 03 – Sept. 14
Sept. 10 – Sept. 21
Sept. 17 – Sept. 28
Sept. 24 – Oct. 05
Oct. 01 – Oct. 12
Oct. 08 – Oct. 19
Oct. 15 – Oct. 26
Oct. 22 – Nov. 02
Oct. 29 – Nov. 09
Nov. 05 – Nov. 16
Nov. 12 – Nov. 23
Nov. 19 – Nov. 30
Nov. 26 – Dec. 07
Dec. 03 – Dec. 14
Dec. 10 – Dec. 21
Dec. 17 – Dec. 28
Dec. 24 – Jan. 04
Dec. 31 – Jan. 11
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Wednesday, returns Sunday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 07 – Jan. 18
Jan. 14 – Jan. 25
Jan. 21 – Feb. 01
Jan. 28 – Feb. 08
Feb. 04 – Feb. 15
Feb. 11 – Feb. 22
Feb. 18 – Mar. 01
Feb. 25 – Mar. 08
Mar. 04 – Mar. 15
Mar. 11 – Mar. 22
May 13 – May 24
May 20 – May 31
May 27 – June 07
June 03 – June 14
June 10 – June 21
June 17 – June 28
June 24 – July 05
July 01 – July 12
July 08 – July 19
July 15 – July 26
July 22 – Aug. 02
July 29 – Aug. 09
Aug. 05 – Aug. 16
Aug. 12 – Aug. 23
Aug. 19 – Aug. 30
Aug. 26 – Sept. 06
Sept. 02 – Sept. 13
Sept. 09 – Sept. 20
Sept. 16 – Sept. 27
Sept. 23 – Oct. 04
Sept. 30 – Oct. 11
Oct. 07 – Oct. 18 Oct. 14 – Oct. 25
Oct. 21 – Nov. 01
Oct. 28 – Nov. 08
Nov. 04 – Nov. 15
Nov. 11 – Nov. 22
Nov. 18 – Nov. 29
Nov. 25 – Dec. 06
Dec. 02 – Dec. 13
Dec. 09 – Dec. 20 Dec. 16 – Dec. 27
Dec. 23 – Jan. 03
Dec. 30 – Jan. 10
South Africa’s Cape Town Victoria Falls Kenya’s Maasai Mara Tanzania’s Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater & Lake Manyara
17 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Cape Town and Nairobi
�e’re not sure why, but great journeys often involve great contrasts. African Splendour is a case in point. On the full 17-day safari (our 12 day version begins in Nairobi on day 7), we range through 34 degrees of latitude and four countries, but, most engagingly and contrastingly, we experience the diverse excitements of Cape Town’s urban pizzazz, the watery colossus of Victoria Falls, and the wondrous game lands of the SerengetiMaasai Mara ecosystem, where the wandering rains compel the planet’s most momentous movement of big, interesting mammals. (And then there’s the Ngorongoro Crater, which really can’t be contrasted with any other place, because there really isn’t any other place remotely like it, at least on our home planet.)
Feeling the cool wind of the night and smelling the good smell of Africa, I was altogether happy.
—Ernest
Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa
Flying to Cape Town. For optional 12-day safari, begin on day 7 in Nairobi.
After a late afternoon or early evening arrival in South Africa’s second-largest and most scenic and snazzy city, we’ll settle into Cape Town’s grande dame hotel, the pink, very pretty, much-loved Mount Nelson Nelly, as it’s affectionately known, lies in the centre of City Bowl, the rocky amphitheatre that embraces Cape Town. During our two full days we’ll make a massively scenic excursion to the Constantia Winelands for tastings and lunch— with a heartlifting visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Red Hill Library and Community Centre. We’ll visit Cape Point Nature Reserve and the Cape of Good Hope (a dramatic point around which the world once spun), take a private tour of the worldwondrous Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and ride the Aerial Cableway to Table Mountain’s stroll-inviting flat top, centre stage of Cape Town’s amazing natural and human extravaganza.
A lovely flight northward via Johannesburg delivers us to Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke That Thunders,” not the highest or the widest but the world’s grandest and most booming waterfall, a large lakesworth of water flinging itself 360 feet straight down every minute of every day, right before our delighted eyes.*
We have a couple of days to appreciate the Falls, cruising on the Zambezi River, watching elephants and giraffes. We’ll helicopter over the Falls on the Flight of Angels, and we’ll wander from one misty vantage point to another, returning for sustenance and leisure to our stately Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe, within walking distance of the world wonder.
* He had been intrigued by their towers of mist from many miles away, and when David Livingstone, the first Westerner to see the Falls, finally reached them in November, 1865, he was so moved that for the only time in his 32 years in Africa, he “vandalized” nature by carving his initials on a tree, as if to verify to himself that he had actually seen such as sight as Victoria Falls.
Words are not adequate to describe the genuine attention to detail, down to the small gifts on the bed at night. Awaiting us on Valentine’s Day was a pack of heart-shaped homemade cookies. That’s class! —Leo P. Lavellee
We fly northeast from Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls to Nairobi and Hemingways, a quietly ravishing haven for lovers of old-style panache mixed with modern amenities and great cuisine, wonderfully set in the lush suburb of Karen.
We fly west from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara, the northern, more verdant section of the single most salubrious wildlife habitat on this or any known planet, the Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem.
Game drives in the Mara are especially fruitful….Our Mara headquarters is Sir Richard Branson’s Mahali Mzuri, whose innovatively designed, yet very African tents “resemble the tents of our youth like a Gulfstream G650 resembles a Piper Cub,” as we said a while back.
Mahali Mzuri is auspiciously set next to one of the Mara’s prime migration pathways.
Now—these are thrilling safari words!—into the Serengeti, amazing in its enormity, its almost infinite skies and long, golden reaches, its million-year quiet.
We’ll make far-ranging game drives on the great plain and in its riverine forests, based from the stunningly deluxe Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, set on rocky bluffs, giving us vast, endlessly stimulating views.
A typically spectacular flight and pleasant drive deliver us to The Manor at Ngorongoro, a marvelous 10-cottage, 20-suite retreat set within a 1,500-acre Arabica coffee estate adjacent to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Those of us who began African Splendour in South Africa will recognize the Manor’s elegant Cape Dutch style; those who haven’t will simply be charmed. Our three nights at the Manor are a rare idyll.
We’ll enjoy a restful afternoon (or a very active one; the Manor offers horsebacking, mountain biking, swimming in the Manor’s pool, and estate walks, among other enjoyments), before a classic high tea and dinner in the private dining room or wine cellar.
And the next day we visit one of the earth’s natural masterpieces. We’ve got a lot of affection for Ngorongoro, and we attempt to do it justice on pages 74, 80, 85, 91 and 97. In case you’d prefer not to scramble around this brochure at the moment, here’s the essence of the crater’s tremendous charisma: 25,000 or so large and very viewable
mammals—from apex predators to galumphing hippos—inhabit the crater’s 100-square-mile floor, and zigzagging up the old volcano’s forested wall to its rim, and gazing for the first or fifth time at the lush lands and their inhabitants in the crater below, is a great moment in any traveller’s life.
We’ll descend to the crater and excitedly roam from morning to afternoon, stopping at mid-day for a charmingly luxurious bush lunch, before heading back to a serene evening at the Manor.
Now we encounter Lake Manyara. Africa is blessed with epic lakes (Tanganyika is the world’s second deepest; all the Rift Lakes are gigantic
African Splendour can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices at every safari location.
stunners), but many, including Ernest Hemingway, consider the smaller gem of Lake Manyara—with its diamond-white alkali rim, its million or so coral-coloured flamingos, and the deep sapphire waters at its centre—the loveliest of all. After a relaxed (or active) morning at the Manor, we’ll embark on a fine afternoon of game viewing around the lake (many tree-climbing lions frequent Manyara’s Africa-embodying scrublands, mahogany forests, and bird-thronged marshlands). And after cocktails and canapés in the bush, we head back to the Manor for a final night before regretfully getting ready to head home.
days 16 & 17 Nairobi and flights home
After flying back to Nairobi, we’ll relax in a full-service, meals-included day room at the Four Points Sheraton, have a quiet dinner, and head out with our Safari Director to nearby Jomo Kenyatta Airport for our late evening flights home.
Full Safari Land arrangements, per person
Double Occupancy
Jan-May November Balance of Year
$35,550 $36,550 $37,650
Single Supplement $6,950 $6,950 $8,050 Internal Flights 3,850 3,850 4,650
12-Day East Africa Only Land arrangements, per person Jan-May November Balance of Year
Double Occupancy
$24,950 $25,950 $27,550
Single Supplement 4,450 4,450 6,250
Internal Flights 2,450 2,450 3,050
(Cape Town / Johannesburg / Victoria Falls / Livingstone / Nairobi / Maasai Mara / Serengeti / Lake Manyara / Nairobi) Connections may apply. Business class supplements are available for some segments.
Door-to-Door from Home (Full Safari) | Departs Saturday, returns Monday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 04 – Jan. 20
Jan. 11 – Jan. 27
Jan. 18 – Feb. 03
Jan. 25 – Feb. 10
Feb. 01 – Feb. 17
Feb. 08 – Feb. 24
Feb. 15 – Mar. 03
Feb. 22 – Mar. 10
Mar. 01 – Mar. 17
Mar. 08 – Mar 24
May 17 – June 02
May 24 – June 09 May 31 – June 16
June 07 – June 23
June 14 – June 30
June 21 – July 07 June 28 – July 14
July 05 – July 21
July 12 – July 28 July 19 – Aug. 04 July 26 – Aug. 11 Aug. 02 – Aug. 18
Aug. 09 – Aug. 25
Aug. 16 – Sept. 01
Aug. 23 – Sept. 08
Aug. 30 – Sept. 15
Sept. 06 – Sept. 22
Sept. 13 – Sept. 29
Sept. 20 – Oct. 06
Sept. 27 – Oct. 13
Oct. 04 – Oct. 20
Oct. 11 – Oct. 27
Nov. 08 – Nov. 24
Nov. 15 – Dec. 01 Nov. 22 – Dec. 08 Nov. 29 – Dec. 15 Dec. 06 – Dec. 22
Dec. 13 – Dec. 29
Dec. 20 – Jan. 05 Dec. 27 – Jan. 12
Oct. 18 – Nov. 03 Oct. 25 – Nov. 10 Nov. 01 – Nov. 17
Door-to-Door from Home (Full Safari) | Departs Saturday, returns Monday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 03 – Jan. 19
Jan. 10 – Jan. 26
Jan. 17 – Feb. 02
Jan. 24 – Feb. 09
Jan. 31 – Feb. 16
Feb. 07 – Feb. 23
Feb. 14 – Mar. 02
Feb. 21 – Mar. 09
Feb. 28 – Mar. 16
Mar. 07 – Mar 23
May 16 – June 01
May 23 – June 08 May 30 – June 15 June 06 – June 22 June 13 – June 29 June 20 – July 06
June 27 – July 13
July 04 – July 20 July 11 – July 27
July 18 – Aug. 03
July 25 – Aug. 10 Aug. 01 – Aug. 17
Aug. 08 – Aug. 24
Aug. 15 – Aug. 31
Aug. 22 – Sept. 07
Aug. 29 – Sept. 14
Sept. 05 – Sept. 21
Sept. 12 – Sept. 28
Sept. 19 – Oct. 05
Sept. 26 – Oct. 12
Oct. 03 – Oct. 19
Oct. 10 – Oct. 26 Oct. 17 – Nov. 02
Oct. 24 – Nov. 09 Oct. 31 – Nov. 16 Nov. 07 – Nov. 23
Nov. 14 – Nov. 30 Nov. 21 – Dec. 07
Nov. 28 – Dec. 14
Dec. 05 – Dec. 21
Dec. 12 – Dec. 28
Dec. 19 – Jan. 04
Dec. 26 – Jan. 11
So geographers in Afric-maps . . . Place elephants for want of towns.
—Jonathan Swift, On Poetry: A Rhapsody
South Africa’s Cape Town & Cape Winelands • Phinda Private Game Reserve • Sabi Sand Game Reserve Victoria Falls
13 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Cape Town and Johannesburg
�e honour many especially radiant gems on this wonderfully eventful, under-two-week safari: sparkly Cape Town and its Winelands, Phinda Private Game Reserve’s marvelously varied ecosystems, the classically golden savannahs and lush forests of the private Sabi Sand Game Reserve, and gargantuan Victoria Falls. We begin with three nights in Cape Town’s knockout One&Only, with festive excursions into the nearby Winelands. Then comes a splendid couple of days in Phinda’s seven distinct and beautiful habitats, and on to artfully designed Tengile River Lodge, on a serene bend in the private Sabi Sand Game Reserve’s Sand River, a private enclave next to Kruger National Park. We end with a thrilling watery roar at Victoria Falls and the famed Royal Livingstone, where mist from the nearby colossus Victoria Falls freshens our day.
Haste, haste has no blessing.
—Kiswahili proverb
day 1 En route
* The Cape Floristic Region, which we’ll be amidst, is far and away the smallest of the world’s six recognized floristic kingdoms or phytochorions. It’s the only earthly abode of more than 6,000 vascular plant species. The long and short of it: the CFR is a guaranteed pulse-raising wonderland for nature lovers.
“The whole town,” Captain Cook wrote in 1771 about Cape Town, “may be considered as one great inn fitted up for the recreation of all comers and goers.” The great voyager may as well have been writing yesterday: Cape Town is one of the world’s jazziest, most fascinatingly multicultural and downright beautiful cities. Our base is the incomparable One&Only, set on the bustling Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, looking up at Table Mountain (which we’ll ascend via the famed Aerial Tramway). We’ll drive down the grand and wild Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope, around which much of the world’s history once turned. And we’ll motor into the Cape Winelands for wine-tasting, leisurely lunch-taking, and view-imbibing in one of the most salubrious spots in a region rich with human and natural splendour.*
We fly northeast across South Africa’s gargantuan geographies to the private Phinda Reserve’s seven distinct habitats—woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, rolling hills, rivers, seasonal marshes and pans, and a hauntingly beautiful sand forest— Africa’s last sand forest—all home to a superb wildlife medley (which includes the Big Five and 436 bird species).
We’ll settle, depending on the season, into one of two outstanding camps: either the Phinda Forest Lodge, set in that marvelous forest, with “glass bubble” suites that bring us into cozy contact with the sweetly enveloping forest, or the Phinda Mountain Lodge, set on a hilltop with wrap-around views of the verdurous Lebombo foothills.
Each lodge features beguiling infinity pools, festive outdoor dining under South Africa’s intense but friendly stars, birdsong and the twittering of bush babies, and deep tranquility as we rest up from our game driving forays into Phinda’s remarkable microregions.
The very private, very beautiful Sabi Sand Game Reserve is one of our favourite African places.
Adjacent to Kruger National Park, the 240-square mile Sabi Sand is home to all of Kruger’s famously rich roster of animals—including, of course, the Big Five—who wander freely between Sabi Sand and the much more humanly thronged national park.
Our domicile in this surpassingly lovely corner of Africa is the conveniently modern (and solar-powered) Tengile River Lodge, set in a riverside forest, soothingly secluded (with only nine thoughtfully luxurious suites, each with a private plunge pool).
For Micato, it’s not about luxury (though there was that to spare), it’s about authenticity. Our guides were not only magically knowledgeable about every possible thing you could want to discover about the wildlife that popped up at every turn, they were funny, human, and real.
—Dr. Jean Marmoreo and Bob Ramsay
“Poor Niagara,” Eleanor Roosevelt supposedly said upon viewing Brazil and Argentina’s Iguazu Falls. Had she gazed on Victoria Falls—the greatest curtain of water on earth, 60 tumultuous feet higher than its South American rival—the famously articulate First Lady might have been struck speechless. Victoria Falls is a waterfall like no other, and during our stay at the legendary Royal Livingstone Hotel we’ll get to know the Falls, helicoptering over them on the famed Flight of Angels, savouring early-morning, coffee-sipping views from our room’s veranda of the almost 1,000 feet of mist that rise from the watery cauldron to lazy afternoon sundowners near its dramatic precipice,
contemplating what the greatest travel writer of all time, Richard Halliburton, called “a hurricane of bursting water . . . that seems to fall up, not down.”
We fly from Livingstone to Johannesburg, and on to full-service, meals-included day rooms at the InterContinental before our Safari Director accompanies us to the adjacent airport for our homeward flights.
Most memorable was the attention to detail, the personal service and thoughtful gifts from our hosts Felix and Jane Pinto. This is what wins awards as well as loyal clients. I can honestly say that this was the finest tour my husband and I have ever taken.
— Hannah Reinmuth, Virtuoso Travel Consultant
Jewels of Southern Africa can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Tariff 2025
Land arrangements, per person Jan-Mar Balance of Year December Double Occupancy $31,950 $33,950 $35,950 Single Supplement 7,550 7,650 9,950
Flights 2,750 3,150 3,150
(Cape Town / Nelspruit / Phinda / Skukuza / Nelspruit / Livingstone / Johannesburg) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Friday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 05 – Jan. 17
Jan. 12 – Jan. 24
Jan. 26 – Feb. 07
Feb. 09 – Feb. 21
Feb. 23 – Mar. 07
Mar. 09 – Mar. 21
Mar. 23 – Apr. 04
Apr. 13 – Apr. 25
Apr. 27 – May 09 May 11 – May 23 May 18 – May 30 May 25 – June 06
June 01 – June 13
June 15 – June 27 June 29 – July 11 July 13 – July 25
July 20 – Aug. 01
July 27 – Aug. 08
Aug. 10 – Aug. 22
Aug. 17 – Aug. 29
Aug. 31 – Sept. 12
Sept. 14 – Sept. 26
Sept. 28 – Oct. 10 Oct. 12 – Oct. 24
26 – Nov. 07 Nov. 16 – Nov. 28 Nov. 30 – Dec. 12 Dec. 21 – Jan. 02 Dec. 28 – Jan. 09
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Friday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 04 – Jan. 16
Jan. 11 – Jan. 23
Jan. 25 – Feb. 06
Feb. 08 – Feb. 20
Feb. 22 – Mar. 06
Mar. 08 – Mar. 20
Mar. 22 – Apr. 03
Apr. 12 – Apr. 24 Apr. 26 – May 08 May 10 – May 22 May 17 – May 29 May 24 – June 05 May 31 – June 12 June 14 – June 26 June 28 – July 10 July 12 – July 24
July 19 – July. 31
July 26 – Aug. 07
Aug. 09 – Aug. 21
Aug. 16 – Aug. 28
Aug. 30 – Sept. 11
Sept. 13 – Sept. 25
Sept. 27 – Oct. 09 Oct. 11 – Oct. 23
Oct. 25 – Nov. 06 Nov. 15 – Nov. 27 Nov. 29 – Dec. 11
Dec. 20 – Jan. 01 Dec. 27 – Jan. 08
Botswana’s Okavango Delta & Khwai Private Reserve • Zambia • Victoria Falls • Zimbabwe • Hwange National Park
14 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Johannesburg
Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a world-unique oasis of smoothly meandering waterways, lagoons bubbling with hippos, idyllic minisavannah islands, the “most unexpected of wonders,” as Frans Lanting wrote, “water in the desert,” gently pulsing water that brings life to a dazzling population of wildlife.
I think I could turn and live with animals. . I stand and look at them long and long. . Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke That Thunders,” far and away the planet’s grandest waterfall—as we like to say, one of the planet’s grandest anythings brimming with “scenes so lovely [they] must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight,” rhapsodized David Livingstone, the first outsider to succumb to the Falls’ immense charisma. And not far from the colossal cascade, Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park’s archetypal African landscapes, roamed in natural freedom by the fabled Big Five and five score other mammals and 20 score colourful avians, making Hwange one of the continent’s finest game-viewing, traveller-enchanting destinations.
day 2 Johannesburg
After arrival we’ll be whisked out to Johannesburg’s verdant suburb of Sandhurst and the halcyon Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa, a place intimately associated with Nelson Mandela, as we explain at the top of page 122.
It’s hard to be more enthusiastic about the “vast, mesmerizing oasis” of the Okavango Delta than we are just to the right of here, on page 121’s introduction to Botswana’s Timeless Wilderness. Suffice to say—until you experience it—that the Delta is in the topmost rank of world wonders (and more sweetly accommodating than most).
We fly from Joburg to Maun, then on to the Kadizora airstrip, where we’ll hop on a helicopter for a quick but scenically superb flight to Duke’s Camp, set in solitude deep in the beautiful braided waterways of the Northern Okavango. Our camp for two nights is named after Sarefo “Duke” Sarefo, custodian of this lush parcel of African wilderness, who was born on the very island that the camp now occupies. Duke’s embodies all that a smartly designed, tradition-honouring, nature-graced African luxury safari camp should be.
A short morning flight takes us to what we think is one of Botswana’s best kept secrets: the Khwai Private Reserve, another Okavangan marvel. Our lodging here is Sable Alley, an inspirationally stylish camp set on its own quiet lagoon. We step out onto the veranda of Sable’s enormous (almost 600-square-foot) tents to a close view of the lagoon and its medley of animal visitors.
Khwai’s water- and landscapes vary dramatically:
riverine forests, acacia woodlands, and the Delta’s gliding watercourses. We’ll explore them all, in small watercraft, safari vehicles, and on foot, delighting in the reserve’s full African cast of nowhere-else-onearth creatures—lions, skyscrapey giraffes, bouldery Cape buffalo and peppy, fascinating African wild dogs. “They live the life domestic dogs wish they could live,” as biologist Rosie Woodroffe says.
We fly into Zambia, and along the way we may see a dramatic sight from many miles away: silvery, tower-
ing clouds rising up from the flat brown earth. The plume of the world’s most colossal cascade, Victoria Falls.
Our small, astutely designed Thorntree River Lodge is set in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, beside the Zambezi River, upstream from the Falls. We’ll make an arrival-afternoon game drive in the park (lovingly protected rhinos are headliners), or take a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. But Victoria Falls beckons, and we’ll spend Day 9 wandering its many vantage points, strolling through mist in our Micato-supplied rain gear, swooping over the
When I first thought about taking our groups to Africa, I was told by people I respect that I should deal only with Micato Safaris. I was told not only that you were the best, but also that you were unique in your ability to transfer the warmth of your operation to everyone you touch . . . and I must say that even my very high expectations were exceeded in every way! —Barry Wolpa
Falls in a helicopter (the famous, pulse-quickening Flight of Angels), continually astonished by one of the greatest wonders in a world full of them (see more waterfallian praise on page 132).
days 10 –12 Hwange National Park
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices at every
Somalisa Camp is located in the middle of Hwange, in a vlei, or marshy, animal-attracting area. We arrive in the intimate camp (only seven fully modern, elegantly decorated tents) after a short flight from Victoria Falls and make the first of our eventful game drives in the cooling afternoon, perhaps after a revivifying dip in Somalisa’s aquamarine pool, often with elephants frolicking in a waterhole only yards away.
Hwange is classic African bush country, and our game drives in the park are exceptionally rich; the Big Five are in residence, along with white rhino, zebras by the hundreds, and more than a hundred other mammals, including another large contingent of wild dogs, stately gemsbok, and brown hyenas, crafty and oddly compelling creatures who endear themselves to many veteran safariers. And after
game drives we relax on Somalisa’s tree-shaded veranda, enjoy the camp’s top-notch cuisine, and savour safari’s freedom from care.
days 13 & 14 Homeward bound
After a short flight back to Victoria Falls, we continue to Johannesburg for our outbound flights, with full-service, meals-included day rooms at the InterContinental —and, as always, our Safari Director and vehicle at beck and call.
Thank you again for all the unexpected wonderful gifts and surprises we received on our safari. We have proof now that Santa Claus’ headquarters is in Nairobi, not the North Pole.
—Shelly and Jim Fraser
Passage Through Botswana and Zimbabwe can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Tariff 2025
Land arrangements, per person
Jan-Mar Apr-May June-Oct Nov-Dec Double Occupancy $24,950 $27,850 $33,950 $24,950
(Johannesburg / Maun / Camp to Camp / Kasane / Livingstone; Victoria Falls / Hwange National Park / Johannesburg) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Saturday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 05 – Jan. 18
Jan. 26 – Feb. 08
Feb. 09 – Feb. 22
Feb. 23 – Mar. 08
Mar. 09 – Mar. 22
Mar. 23 – Apr. 05
Apr. 06 – Apr. 19
May 25 – June 07
June 08 – June 21
June 15 – June 28
June 22 – July 05
July 06 – July 19 July 13 – July 26
Apr. 27 – May 10 May 04 – May 17 May 11 – May 24
July 20 – Aug. 02
July 27 – Aug. 09
Aug. 03 – Aug. 16
Aug. 10 – Aug. 23
Aug. 17 – Aug. 30
Aug. 31 – Sept. 13
Sept. 07 – Sept. 20
Sept. 21 – Oct. 04
14 –
21 – Jan. 03
28 – Jan. 10
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Sunday, returns Saturday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 04 – Jan. 17
Jan. 25 – Feb. 07
Feb. 08 – Feb. 21
Feb. 22 – Mar. 07
Mar. 08 – Mar. 21
Mar. 22 – Apr. 04
Apr. 05 – Apr. 18
Apr. 26 – May 09
May 03 – May 16 May 10 – May 23
May 24 – June 06 June 07 – June 20
June 14 – June 27 June 21 – July 04
July 05 – July 18 July 12 – July 25
July 19 – Aug. 01
July 26 – Aug. 08
Aug. 02 – Aug. 15
Aug. 09 – Aug. 22
Aug. 16 – Aug. 29
Aug. 30 – Sept. 12
Sept. 06 – Sept. 19
Sept. 20 – Oct. 03
Sept. 27 – Oct. 10 Oct. 04 – Oct. 17
Oct. 25 – Nov. 07 Nov. 08 – Nov. 21
Dec. 06 – Dec. 19
Dec. 13 – Dec. 26
Dec. 20 – Jan. 02 Dec. 27 – Jan. 09
�12 days door-to-door Includes days en route to/from Johannesburg The word wonderful does not fit into science, for from one point of view every natural occurrence is as wonderful as another. But we are justified in using the term when we meet a phenomenon which is such an exception to the ordinary rules of nature that it appears to be a miracle.
f we had to pick the most miraculous African place of all, it might well be the Okavango Delta, where the 1,000-milelong Okavango River gives up on its search for an outlet to the sea and seeps lifegivingly into the sands of one of the world’s most uncompromising deserts, creating a vast and mesmerizing oasis. As Frans Lanting wrote in his elegiac book Okavango: Africa’s Last Eden, “The [Delta’s] very existence in the middle of the Kalahari Desert is nothing short of miraculous . . . like a dream.”
Botswana’s wilderness is expansive and—to our scurrying senses—timeless, and the Okavango isn’t its only dreamy place. Our under-two-week safari takes us to three others, right up near the top of African marvels: the lush and pacific Gomoti Plains Camp, the exemplary Moremi Game Reserve, quite close to another phenomenon of miraculous rarity, Victoria Falls.
—Eugène N. Marais, The Soul of the Ape
To say that I am impressed with your company and operation is a vast understatement. I had lofty expectations for our safari and Micato surpassed those—in a big way. In my mind it would be a travesty for you not to win the Travel+Leisure award for the next ten years.
Paige D. Koerbel Regional Vice President, Renaissance Hotels
days 3 & 4
The Okavango Delta
After arriving at O. R. Tambo International, we’ll be escorted to the Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa in Johannesburg’s tree-lined suburb of Sandhurst. This quietly luxurious hotel has much to be proud of but says, touchingly, that its greatest “boast” is that the father of modern South Africa, Nelson Mandela, chose the Saxon as his sanctuary at which to complete his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom
Our base in the miraculous Delta is beautifully shaded Camp Okavango, tucked away in serene isolation on lush Nxaragha Island. Intimate, recently and lovingly rebuilt, the camp has many charms: unflashy luxury, great dining, and extraordinarily well-designed tents—including a two-bedroom family tent—each raised on a platform with a private deck overlooking the hippo-thronged Delta waters.
Camp Okavango is notable for its variety of game-viewing experiences, from canoeing and
motorboating in the Delta’s waterways, to guided bush walks on neighbouring islands. All the classic African headliners are to be seen, sometimes unexpectedly. “One of the Okavango’s delights,” Frans Lanting writes, “is the sheer surprise of seeing an elephant emerge from underwater.”
A quick flight takes us southeastward to Gomoti Plains Camp, where the river of that name, a thick tendril of Okavango lushness, is bounded by savannah giving way to desert, offering us another exceptionally varied look at intertwined ecosystems and the charismatic animals that call them home. Because of Gomoti’s untroubled remoteness, much wildlife filming and research has been done here, of lions, elephants, buffalo, and especially of the area’s large coterie of African wild dogs, sometimes called painted wolves.
Gomoti Plains Camp, set pacifically along the banks of the Gomoti River, accommodates us with tents set on raised wooden decks and decorated to mirror the water and land themes that define the exquisite and heart-liftingly rare Okavango.
A jaunty helicopter flight takes us north to the Khwai River and Machaba Camp, designed in classic 1950s safari style, so well suited to its surroundings that animals wander down to the river insouciantly, delighting us as we watch, sundowner in hand, from our tents. And, among Moremi’s myriad charms, it gives us the chance to see the huge African night sky that ever captivated Elspeth Huxley, a sky “bristling with innumerable stars, as close-packed as the quills on a porcupine.”*
* People ask us about books. Africa has a great and deep literature, but if you read Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa; Elspeth Huxley’s The Flame Trees of Thika and her sometimes overlooked The Mottled Lizard; Ng¯ug¯ı wa Thiong’o’s bracing A Grain of Wheat; and Beryl Markham’s West with the Night, you will be extremely enchanted and informed. (Of course, our pre-departure materials include a well-scouted reading list.)
Whatever was promised in the brochure was far surpassed in our actual experiences. There is no way we can sufficiently praise our Safari Director and drivers—far and away the most knowledgeable, intelligent, and caring we have ever encountered. Fran and Paul Heller
days 9 & 10
Victoria Falls
We don’t like to repeat ourselves, so we hope you don’t mind if we direct you to a torrent of praise for Victoria Falls over on page 132. Here we’ll repeat something a Micato friend once said: “Victoria Falls is billed as one of the world’s greatest waterfalls, but, as a matter of fact, it’s one of the world’s greatest anythings.” In other good news: we’ll be staying in the grand, colonial-era Victoria Falls Hotel, within walking distance of the incredible cataract.
days 11 & 12
Johannesburg and onward
We fly to Johannesburg, with fullservice, meals-included day rooms at the InterContinental before our ever-in-attendance Safari Director accompanies us to the airport for flights homeward.
Botswana’s Timeless Wilderness can easily be transformed into a fully Private Classic Safari, with your friends or family group’s own Safari Director, private vehicles, with the freedom to set your own schedules, to enjoy private meals in the bush, and many etceteras. In short, while your Private Classic will follow the set itinerary of any of our Classic Safaris, it offers the exclusivity and flexibility of a Custom Safari, at a lower cost. For a deeper look at Private Classics, see pages 66 and 67.
Your Safari Director will discuss with you a variety of individualized activity choices at every safari location.
We were continually delighted by the little extras that you provided. I’ve never been on a packaged trip like this where literally everything— beyond what your brochure promoted— was covered. What an absolute pleasure.
—Scott J. Mermel
Land arrangements, per person
Jan-Mar Apr-May June-Oct Nov-Dec
Double Occupancy $21,950 $23,950 $26,550 $21,950
Single Supplement 1,950 3,550 5,150 3,450
Internal Flights 3,250 3,250 3,450 3,250
(Johannesburg / Maun / Camp to Camp / Kasane / Victoria Falls / Johannesburg) Connections may apply.
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Saturday, returns Wednesday Every date is a guaranteed departure
Jan. 04 – Jan. 15
Jan. 18 – Jan. 29
Feb. 08 – Feb. 19
Feb. 22 – Mar. 05
Mar. 15 – Mar. 26
Mar. 29 – Apr. 09
Apr. 12 – Apr. 23
Apr. 26 – May 07
May 03 – May 14
May 10 – May 21 May 17 – May 28 May 24 – June 04 May 31 – June 11 June 07 – June 18 June 14 – June 25
June 21 – July 02 June 28 – July 09 July 05 – July 16
July 12 – July 23
July 19 – July 30
July 26 – Aug. 06
Aug. 02 – Aug. 13
Aug. 09 – Aug. 20
Aug. 16 – Aug. 27
Aug. 23 – Sept. 03
Aug. 30 – Sept. 10 Sept. 13 – Sept. 24
Door-to-Door from Home | Departs Saturday, returns Wednesday New rates and dates may apply
Jan. 03 – Jan. 14
Jan. 17 – Jan. 28
Feb. 07 – Feb. 18
Feb. 21 – Mar. 04
Mar. 14 – Mar. 25
Mar. 28 – Apr. 08
Apr. 11 – Apr. 22
Apr. 25 – May 06
May 02 – May 13
May 09 – May 20 May 16 – May 27 May 23 – June 03
May 30 – June 10 June 06 – June 17
June 13 – June 24
June 20 – July 01
June 27 – July 08 July 04 – July 15
July 11 – July 22
July 18 – July 29
July 25 – Aug. 05
Aug. 01 – Aug. 12
Aug. 08 – Aug. 19
Aug. 15 – Aug. 26
Aug. 22 – Sept. 02
Aug. 29 – Sept. 09 Sept. 12 – Sept. 23
26 – Oct. 07 Oct. 10 – Oct. 21
24 – Nov. 04
07 – Nov. 18 Nov. 21 – Dec. 02 Dec. 19 – Dec. 30 Dec. 26 – Jan. 06
The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas, are specifically addressed to man. —John Berger, Why Look at Animals?
days 1 & 2 Kigali and Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda
* A friend of ours turned a leafy corner in the mountains and came across a mother gorilla giving birth. “My general optimism quotient— maybe illogically, but very forcibly—rose about 70 percent,” he said.
“I will carry that memory, and maybe some of that optimism, with me forever.”
Talk to someone who’s paid a visit to the mountain gorillas of Rwanda’s highlands and you are likely to hear near-rhapsodic praise for a rare, beautiful, and often very moving experience.* Our carefully orchestrated visits begin in Kigali, revitalized Rwanda’s charming capital, which we’ll tour before heading northwest to the Virunga Volcanoes, a stately chain of jungle volcanoes that top out at Mount Karisimbi’s 14,787 feet, higher than any Rocky or Sierra Nevada. We’ll settle into the superb One&Only Gorilla’s Nest, a fine base for our wanderings in these almost supernaturally verdant precincts.
The next day, led by our guide and his crew, we begin making our way through a forest of trailing vines, trilling bird calls, giant lobelia, and mossy hagenia trees—a Jurassic, emerald world—walking toward an encounter with one of the park’s 12 habituated (meaning they aren’t
frightened by us) families of mountain gorillas; no more than eight people are allowed to visit any given family for more than an hour each day. Seeing a 450-pound male saunter by only a few yards away is something you’ll want to tell your grandchildren’s children about.
day 3 Parc National des Volcans
We’ll pay our respects to a different gorilla family today, noting the subtle cultural differences between clans, getting more insight into why the great animal rights activist Pat Derby said, “They are brave and loyal. They help each other. They play and have humor and they harm nothing. They are what we should be.”
We’ll make the drive to Kigali for our homeward flights. (One final note: travellers who’d like to visit more of our primate relatives should ask us about easy-to-arrange side trips that put us in contact with chimpanzees and colobus monkeys.)
Tariff 2025 | Land arrangements, per person
Double Occupancy from $12,500
Gorilla Permits (nonrefundable) $3,000
If you’ve ever taken a ride on a hot-air balloon, you know. And if you haven’t, you are in for an indelibly jolly experience. As we put it earlier: “Wafting over the Mara in a piercingly fresh and golden morning, floating over elephants and hippos, feeling a mild and worthy intoxication-by-grandeur, is one of those things that, having done, we wonder how on earth we ever contemplated not doing.”
Ballooning is available in many of our camps in the Maasai Mara, the Serengeti, and South Africa. Our safari experts, balloon enthusiasts all, will fill you in on details, including the festive open-air breakfasts that follow these marvelous sky-jaunts.
Another terrifically jolly safari option: private helicopter excursions to places fully appreciated only
from the skies—gargantuan Victoria Falls, South Africa’s dramatic Blyde River Canyon, or the wild Cape Peninsula and sparkling Cape Town. Places otherwise difficult to reach—the trout fishing streams and alpine slopes of Mount Kenya, or a viewful picnic on the slopes of the Laikipia Plateau’s Mount Lolgurugi. Or helicoptering just for the fun of popping from one safari camp to another, with a whirlywinged look down at massive crocodiles weaving through watercourses and elephant clans pacing “as if they had an appointment at the end of the world,” as Isak Dinesen wrote. Africa’s landscapes always tell a story, and it’s an exhilarating one.
Very few of us don’t thrill at the prospect of a helicopter flight, and our safari experts are not among those few. And they can fill you in on the almost unlimited opportunities to enjoy one.
Tariff 2025 | Balloonic enchantment: from $490 Maasai Mara from $520 Serengeti Helicopter tariffs vary; we’ll consult with you on specifics.
days 1 & 2
Cape Town and environs
Not much has changed in the intervening four centuries to undermine Sir Francis Drake’s praise of Cape Town’s situation as “the most stately thing and the fairest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth.” (Of course, the town on the Cape was yet to be, so the local Khoisan people had the natural spectacle all to themselves for another six decades or so before the Dutch arrived and began town-making.)
We are fervent admirers of Cape Town, and either of our two hotels on this extension—the superb One&Only or the equally excellent Mount Nelson—are a fine place to begin our
explorations of this grand, cosmopolitan city (whose praises we sing on pages 110).
From there we venture to the Cape Peninsula, a nature lover’s dream (its fynbos ecosystem is a unique bit of natural magic). We’ll drive out to the Peninsula’s southern tip, the dramatic and historically momentous Cape of Good Hope, and we’ll head over to Boulders Beach, where the hoots of the peninsula’s baboons are replaced by the trills of penguins, who somewhat mysteriously set up shop here only a few decades ago. And we’ll stroll in the old-style streets of Simon’s Town before returning to the One&Only, where we’ll dine on our own (all meals on the Cape Town Sojourn extension are happily included).
A day of estate touring and wine tasting in the Winelands’ sunny and exuberantly fertile valleys tucked between towering, beautifully sculpted mountains laced with mist (to put it mildly).
We’ll lunch at Delaire Graff Estate, which houses a world-class art collection, and we’ll have the chance to wander through some of the district’s resolutely quaint villages, like famous Franschhoek (“French corner” in Dutch, a small sign of the Western Cape Province’s multicultural history).
(optional) Cape Town
We’ve slotted in an optional extra day in Cape Town on the principle that most people are quite
reluctant to leave it. A ferry from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront will take us across Table Bay to Robben Island for an instructive look at the prison where Nelson Mandela and former South African president Jacob Zuma were confined during the old apartheid government. And we’ll pay an inspirational visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Red Hill Library and Community Centre.
day 5 Depart Cape Town . reluctantly.
Tariff 2025 | Land arrangements, per person 3 Nights 4 Nights
Occupancy
Micato rules supreme in the world of safaris very simply because of their attention to detail and their ability to anticipate and coordinate the most fantastical adventures. —Blair Underwood
Like the Grand Canyon, or the Taj Mahal, Victoria Falls is one of those earthly sights that surpasses the eagerest of expectations. Far and away the world’s most massive cataract, Mosi-oa-Tunya, the “Smoke that Thunders,” flings “a large lakesworth of water 360 feet straight down every minute of every day, right before our delighted eyes” (as we say over in African Splendour, page 101).
On arrival your Micato Safari Director and driver take us to a couple of hotels we’ve chosen for their ambience and proximity to the Falls.
Either the elegant Royal Livingstone, one of Travel+Leisure’s Best Hotels in the World, or the elegant, colonial-era Victoria Falls Hotel, in a pacific little corner of Zimbabwe; an “incredible hotel,” one visitor called it, “with stunning views and just a 10-minute walk to the Falls.”
In the evening, we’ll take a sundowner cruise on the lushly banked Zambezi, a normally easy-going river that enjoys a madcap escapade at
the Falls before dutifully heading to its outlet in the Indian Ocean.
The next day we’ll helicopter over the Falls, an experience impossible to describe without harkening back to something David Livingstone— the first, albeit earthbound Westerner to see the Falls—wrote in 1855: “A scene so lovely [it] must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”
And in the afternoon we’ll take a walking tour of the Falls from a variety of vantage points, getting close to its endless but untroubling thunder, gleefully wonderstruck by one of the most stupendous sights we humans are privileged to see.
Onward to home, Africa, or the world.
Tariff 2025 | Land arrangements, per person
2 Nights
Double Occupancy from $4,150
Single Supplement from $1,250
Let’s say you’ve taken an armchair safari through our 9 Classic Safaris (a journey that begins on page 71 and ends on 125). They average only 12 guests, they’re frequent, they’re guaranteed to depart, their time frame fits, and their itineraries are exciting. But you think it might be lovely to enjoy a higher level of privacy for your family vacation, reunion, or celebration, for that long-planned trip with old friends. Hence: our innovative Private Classic Safaris.
Basically, a Private Classic is one of our more than 400 Classic departures transformed into your group’s own exclusive safari, with your own touchdown-totakeoff Safari Director, with your own safari vehicles, all within your own bubble, so to speak, a bubble that includes your group, your Micato helpmates around the world, and all of Africa’s glories, all to yourselves. (And at a surprisingly lower cost than a private Custom Safari.)
Way beyond basically, a Private Classic is a wonderful way to bond with family and friends, to schedule your own game drives, to decide to linger in a salubrious spot or decide to stay with a lion pride on its rounds, to follow your group’s interests and enthusiasms without worrying about other people, to take breakfasts, lunches, or dinners in the bush if you want, to give free rein to your group’s way of doing and appreciating things.
Private Classics have become immensely popular since we introduced them some years ago. And if the idea of that intimate bubble intrigues you, we’ll be glad to discuss the really very simple and exciting details.
Note, too, that we can easily arrange extensions, add-ons, upgrades, private air flights, helicopter jaunts, and pretty much you name it to your Private Classic.
Our three sisters’—and assorted mates and progeny—safari really did make us feel like Micato’s famous “well-loved, out-of-town relatives.”
—Paula
Poxon-Sanchez
Nothing comes as more of a surprise to first-time visitors to Africa than the luxury, serenity, and romance of its lodges and camps. Tributes to these delightful lodgings appear throughout this brochure, along with testimony to our long, hearty relationships with them.
Here are some of the extraordinary East Africa properties Micato has chosen for its Classic, Private Classic, and Custom journeys. (For more Custom Lodges and Camps and splendid Private Villas and Estates, see our expanded collection at Micato.com.)
maasai mara , kenya
In the heart of a towering acacia forest in the private, 50,000-acre Naboisho Conservancy next to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Mara Nyika is a quietly luxurious, ecologically adept camp with many well thought-out extras, such as professional cameras and lenses provided in each of its three suites (and one family suite). Its dexterously designed, 1,000-square-foot, thoughtfully furnished tents are on raised platforms for a delightful treehouse experience.
maasai mara , kenya
maasai mara , kenya
A small luxury tented camp in the grand, centuryold Kempinski tradition, Olare Mara is beautifully set in riverine forest on the banks of the Ntiakitiak River, an ideal place to watch elephants bathing and hippos lazing. Olare’s tents, built on airy wooden platforms, feature a large lounge area furnished with sofas and large pillows on which to unwind after a game drive or just for the fun of it.
Surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mara River, on the edge of the great game lands of the Maasai Mara, the Fairmont Mara Safari Club is an exemplar of tented charm. Named a Top 20 Luxury Resort by Travel+Leisure, the Fairmont hosts a number of fine dining, safari, and outdoor activities. With four-poster, pillow-top beds and a veranda overlooking the hippo- and crocodile-filled river, each of the 38 tents at Fairmont Mara Safari Club is superbly and comprehensively furnished.
�ichwa Tembo
maasai mara , kenya
Set in a lush riverine forest in the midst of a game-rich private conservancy, Kichwa’s tented suites are modern and elegant. Each has a private deck overlooking what we think is one of Kenya’s most stunning landscapes (which is saying a very lot), and the camp’s pool, airy main lodge, and exceptional service add luster to Kichwa’s terrific reputation.
maasai mara , kenya
A sister property of Kichwa Tembo, Bateleur epitomizes tented luxury. The camp’s setting is exquisite, nestled among the forests on the edge of the Maasai Mara (quite near where the final scene of Out of Africa was filmed). Lavishly appointed tents, each looked after by a butler,* feature polished wooden floors, en-suite bathrooms with glass-walled showers, and private decks.
* Butler is one of those words that remind us of East Africa’s British colonial past. Some prefer room attendant, or something a little less highfalutin. But these fine-fellows-by-any-name are there to make sure your every need is cheerfully met.
Located in a spectacularly predator-rich area of the Mara, Mara Plains is an intimate escape, with seven tents in a vast private conservancy. Sweeping savannah views dominate the lusciously appointed marquis tents that create the lounge, dining room, and library. Unique octagonal guest tents are raised on decks with floor-to-ceiling net walls. Combined with night game drives, nature walks, and unrivalled access to superior wildlife, Mara Plains Camp presents a remarkable bush experience.
maasai mara , kenya
Luxurious yet homey, Governors’ Il Moran nestles in a serene forest, and its 10 superbly crafted tents line the Mara River, giving us a fascinating, ongoing story line: elephants and rare small cats, galumphing hippos and delicate birds throng to the water, playing, drinking, relaxing, unconcerned by our rapt attention. Breakfast and lunch at Il Moran are served under giant evergreens on the riverbanks, and dinner is served by candlelight in the open dining tent or al fresco by the river: just a couple of examples of the camp’s romantic aura.
maasai mara, kenya
The inspired creation of Sir Richard Branson, Mahali Mzuri is a state-of-the-art tented camp whose futuristic, fabulously comfortable and innovative—yet very African—tents resemble the tents of our youth like a Gulfstream G650 resembles a Piper Cub. The camp, graced with an infinity pool and a wealth of Bransonesque touches, is located next to one of the Mara’s prime game-viewing areas, much frequented during the great migration.
maasai mara, kenya
Nestled in a lush grove of fig and elephant pepper trees in the heart of the Mara North Conservancy, Elephant Pepper Camp looks out at the oceanic grasslands of the Maasai Mara and its free-roaming wildlife. A wonderfully small and secluded camp, Elephant Pepper is entirely solar-powered, ecologically astute, and proof that luxury and responsibility for the land are happily compatible. And, of course, our game drives here with our Micato Safari Director are exhilarating.
amboseli , kenya
Ol Tukai Lodge abounds in classic views of elephants strolling beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, whose ice cap Kenya-born writer Edmund Morris describes as “floating like a bubble, its lower slopes dissolving into blue.” Ol Tukai’s dedication to eco-awareness is reflected in its imaginatively designed rooms graced with astutely chosen original African art. A favourite guest pastime is a restorative dip in the gorgeous acacia-shaded pool.
amboseli , kenya
Kilimanjaro looms above, glamourous beasts gather at the waterhole nearby, and the essence of Africa slowly works its magic. Tortilis is in many ways the archetype of an African tented camp. Its 16 classically designed tents, secluded under the acacia trees that give the camp its name, blend soothing comfort and rustic style. Tortilis grows its own vegetables and herbs, and our meals there are especially vibrant and delicious.
chyulu hills , kenya
Set amidst 275,000 acres of rolling wilderness with inspiring views of Kilimanjaro, Ol Donyo Lodge is a supreme experience. We explore this enchanting landscape by foot, mountain bike, or horseback and view wildlife in a fourby-four or at close range in Ol Donyo’s unique “logjam” blind. The lodge features 9 exquisite, individually designed suites; all feature combinations of private pools and verandas, sitting rooms, and an indulgent treat: private rooftop star beds.
nairobi , kenya
Set in lush gardens in the pacific Nairobi suburb of Karen, Hemingways has created an excited stir in East Africa’s travel world. Its 45 gorgeous rooms, each honouring an African luminary, are unmatched in their intelligent, gentle luxury. Hemingways’ common rooms are reminiscent of English stately homes, yet with an African flavour. And its restaurants, designed by Michelin starwinning Barry Tonks, have quickly entranced the capital’s gastronomic community.
Campi ya Kanzi
chyulu hills , kenya
Owners Luca and Antonella Belpietro are warmhearted hosts, and the unique partnership between this dynamic Italian couple and a conservation-conscious Maasai community has resulted in a stunning camp, constructed entirely of local materials, with luxe touches and grand style imported from Italy. Walking safaris, game drives, and sundowners in wildly spectacular settings with the Belpietros make for an unforgettable stay. A personal favourite of the Pinto family, Campi ya Kanzi is a true ever-memorable and bright gem.
Kempinski Villa Rosa
nairobi , kenya
A brilliantly fresh and modern hotel in the midst of Nairobi’s bustle, the Kempinski Villa Rosa is a lovely place to recoup after international flights or unwind after an animated safari. Its quartet of restaurants cater to a variety of tastes, its pool and spa beckon the weary traveller, and its Balcony Bar is buzzy. (A pleasant Kempinski grace note: complimentary mini-bar in each of its astutely designed rooms and suites.)
meru national park , kenya
The Daily Telegraph calls Elsa’s Kopje “heaven for romantics,” and for good reason. Named for the camp where George Adamson raised and released orphan lions (those of a certain age will remember Elsa from the movie Born Free), Elsa’s Kopje is sculpted into Mughwango Hill in the heart of Meru. Each cottage is crafted around Mughwango’s rocks, with a large bedroom, open sitting room, veranda and spacious bathroom, and vast, varied, and heartlifting African views.
laikipia plateau, kenya
Set high on a cliff-top overlooking the vast and contemplation-inspiring Laikipia Plateau, Mutara Camp is the only camp in the 20,000-acre Mutara Conservancy. One of our contemplations is likely to be the invigorating contrast between the Plateau’s uninterrupted, animal-rich wilderness, and the soothing luxury of Mutara’s elegantly appointed tents, which feature all the modern comforts, including one of the rarest: deep serenity.
nanyuki , kenya
Since its inspired creation by actor William Holden and his Africa-besotted buddies, the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club has been an East Africa icon. Graced with magnificent views of Mount Kenya, the Safari Club is set amidst more than 100 acres of lovingly landscaped gardens. A winner of the 2013 Travel +Leisure Traveler’s Choice Award, it is often voted one of the World’s Top 50 on T+L’s coveted list of the planet’s premier hotels.
lewa wildlife conservancy, kenya Lovingly built in the foothills of Mount Kenya, Lewa Wilderness is the home of Will and Emma Craig, whose idyllic ranch—part of the vanguard Lewa Conser vancy—has been in the family since 1922. Its eight cottages are decorated with a mixture of British coziness and safari chic. Another branch of the famous Craig family—Calum and Sophie Macfarlane—has created Lewa House in the Conservancy’s heart. Its sweet hospitality and novel, luxurious Earthpods are a cause for celebration.
lewa wildlife conservancy , kenya
High up on the Laikipia Plateau, graced with unendingly various views of Mount Kenya, Lewa is classically airy and simply, easefully luxurious. The camp delights with its 12 thatched roof tents, each with a modern en-suite bathroom and a large private veranda overlooking one of the continent’s most vibrant African landscapes.
lewa wildlife conservancy , kenya
The Lewa Conservancy is perhaps the most successful conservancy in Africa. Family-operated Sirikoi, one of its gems, was named the #1 Safari Property in Africa in 2019 by Condé Nast Traveler’s readers. Sirikoi’s three-bedroom House, twobedroom Cottage, and its four tents are warm, appropriate, exemplary safari lodgings, and the Conservancy’s wildlife viewing is as good as the continent has to offer. This is a place that inspires great respect and affection.
laikipia plateau, kenya
Nestled on an escarpment overlooking the magnificent patchwork of Laikipia, Loisaba was designed to relish the breathtaking views. Spacious, airy tents have floor-to-ceiling doors and windows, polished floors and minimalist but sophisticated Africana furnishings. Horse and camel rides, bush walks, Samburu village visits and more await as we explore the Loisaba Conservancy quite literally in our backyard.
laikipia plateau, kenya
Presided over by Mount Kenya, set atop the grand Laikipia Plateau, Segera Retreat is a luxurious oasis decorated with expertly curated original African artworks and graced with sweeping views of the surrounding savannah. Each villa’s upper floor features a large bedroom and en-suite bathroom; a sun deck and jacuzzi in the private garden offer salubrious lounging and post-game drive relaxing.
laikipia plateau, kenya
Set on a sincere little bluff, with only eight tents—each with its own Guest Ambassador— Loisaba Lodo is designed to welcome in the brilliant light of the 57,000-acre Loisaba Conservancy and catch ever-changing views of magisterial Mount Kenya. An intimate, intelligently designed camp, Loisaba pays informed tribute to old safari ways, with outstanding service, unobtrusive luxury, and deep respect for the land and its animals.
tsavo west national park , kenya
For more than 30 years, Finch Hattons has honored Kenya’s oldest and largest national park, its grand game lands, its people, and ancient landscapes with care and enthusiasm, never faltering in offering its guests comfort and the kind of luxury that makes them dream of returning before they’ve even left. Finch Hattons’ Chyulu Spa is one of the best in Africa, its cuisine draws rave reviews, and game drives in Tsavo are quintessential African experiences.
serengeti , tanzania
Already well supplied with safari-style elegance, the rebranded Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti is a delightful escape in the heart of the Serengeti. Spacious, lavishly appointed rooms feature original artwork and private decks. We browse the art gallery, luxuriate at its world-class spa, and lounge in the infinity pool while watching wildlife drink at the nearby waterhole. Private ranger and butler services make this heavenly African experience yet more luxurious.
serengeti, tanzania
Perched on a bouldery, tree-shaded kopje overlooking a river gorge, Mwiba is a little island of serene civilization and luxury in the midst of an even more serene natural wonder, the vast, golden, animalthronged plain of the Serengeti. Its 10 tented suites (two of them adjoining for family safariers) are superbly equipped, and well situated to capture the Serengeti’s epic sunsets and sunrises.
serengeti , tanzania
Chic and elegant, Grumeti’s 10 luxe tents feature modern, earthy interiors of African fabrics and locally sculpted furnishings, as well as al fresco showers open to the sun and stars. Winningly, the camp sits on the edge of an oxbow lake bustling with hippos.
serengeti , tanzania
Perched alluringly on a kopje above the rolling hills and plains of the Serengeti, Migration Camp is a haven of sumptuousness amidst the raw splendour of the surrounding bush. Its roomy tents are superbly secluded and blend in with their site above the Grumeti River. Migration Camp’s split-level lounge, cigar bar, restaurants, and swimming pool remind us of what it’s pleasant to think of as the delightfully, almost innocently decadent days of the past.
serengeti , tanzania
Brilliantly reimagined, now the flagship of the Elewana chain’s Explorer series, Serengeti Explorer sits high on the Nyaboro Hills, overlooking the planetarily unique “warm ocean of life” that is the Serengeti. With multiple restaurants, a chef’s table in the wine cellar, an art gallery, kid’s bushcraft centre, yoga and fitness facilities, and all the elegant grace notes Elewana is famous for, Serengeti Explorer is an instant Serengeti star.
ngorongoro , tanzania
Set on the forested rim of the great and mindspinningly grand Ngorongoro caldera, Crater Lodge is one of four comely and distinct lodges we favour at this site-of-all-sites. Crater Lodge’s suites are perched on stilts, providing airy views down into the Lost World. And they’re decorated exuberantly, with banana-leaf ceilings and carved Zanzibar wall paneling.
ngorongoro , tanzania
Smartly, strategically placed in 50 acres of lush, untrammeled Tanzanian bush a short drive from Ngorongoro’s rim, the lodge features deliciously private luxury log cabin suites kitted out with stunning modern wooden floors and furnishings, an open fireplace, and a private viewing terrace for taking in the transcendent early-morning radiance of Tanzania’s highlands.
serengeti , tanzania
Located on land recently opened by the Tanzanian government, Namiri Plains basks in privacy. Its classic, animal-rich Serengeti savannah is dotted with acacia trees, the inimitable African signature. Namiri prides itself on its simplicity, but that said, it has the comforts—pool, all the modern conveniences—of more theatrically themed camps. Its 10 tented suites, a family suite, and two large retreats are, Condé Nast Traveller writes, “emphatically chic.”
ngorongoro , tanzania
Inspirationally set on the rim of the fabulous Lost World of the Ngorongoro Crater, the newly inaugurated Melia excels in modern touches like a bright, well-equipped spa and gym; a sharp eye on sustainability; an excellent restaurant; and an infinity pool overlooking—you might think it hovers over— the Crater. And, as it should, modernity here serves a purpose: bringing us into close engagement with one of the world’s grandest wonders.
tarangire national park , tanzania
Lemala Mpingo is set atop its namesake ridge overlooking the game lands of Tarangire. Eight of its spacious tents catch an almost invariably dramatic dawn, the other seven the equally stirring sunset. Each tent has a sunken outside lounge with daybeds, a lovely, view-catching deck with a tub (and there’s another tub and outdoor shower in the en-suite bathroom). Serenity: lolling in a big old tub watching elephants on their ancient errands, down on the plains below.
ngorongoro , tanzania
Colonial-style Ngorongoro Oldeani Lodge is situated on a hill with around-the-compass views of Oldeani Mountain and especially booming looks at the world-wondrous Ngorongoro Crater, close at hand for our eventful game drives. Oldeani has all the unpretentious luxe—the great cuisine, soothing pools, spas, amenities, and lovely accommodations— we expect, and its sublime location makes it a Tanzanian gem.
tarangire , tanzania
Built to blend in with its vast and beautiful surroundings, Tarangire Sopa Lodge is hidden among the kopjes, ancient baobabs, and grasses of Tarangire National Park—home to the greatest concentration of elephants in Africa (many of whom can be seen around the lodge, affording us close, respectful encounters). Tarangire Sopa’s rooms—each with a private-entry lounge and mini-bar—are unusually spacious and refreshingly open to the pristine Tarangire air.
parc national des volcans , rwanda
Due west of here, on page 133 we say that visiting with the famous and carefully protected mountain gorillas of the Parc des Volcans is “something you’ll want to tell your grandchildren’s children about.” Micato is delighted to use the lovely Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge’s six stone cottages, its two suites, and its grand family suite, as a staging point for “rare, beautiful, and often very moving” encounters with our magnificent near-relatives.
tarangire , tanzania
The main lodge encircles a baobab tree, but that’s just one Treetops fascination: every marvelous tree house boasts one of the largest bedrooms to be found in any camp or lodge in East Africa. Each features an exotic double shower in its en-suite bathroom, furnishings that demonstrate a commitment to fine local craftsmanship, and an open-fronted room design affording views across the Tarangire plains from an expansive balcony.
parc national des volcans , rwanda
Graced by towering views of the jungle volcanoes from which the park takes its name—they’re higher, as we say, than “any Rocky or Sierra Nevada”— Bisate is a sumptuous gateway to heart-stirring meetings with the Parc des Volcans’ mountain gorillas. Intimate, very African in feel, the lodge’s six brightly decorated suites were designed for comfort, immersion in this natural wonderland, and for state-of-the-art sustainability.
Xanadu Villas and Retreat
zanzibar , tanzania
We think the fabled Spice Island of Zanzibar is an ideal pre- or post-safari stop, rich in R&R of the sublimest sort, and the Xanadu meets our expectations for relaxation, rest, and some of the scenic and historic spice for which the island is famous. Its six spectacularly designed villas surround a large pool area, and a private beach on the warm waters of the Indian Ocean is only steps away.
Gorilla’s Nest
parc national des volcans, rwanda One&Only, of Cape Town fame, brings its tradition of unremitting excellence to the high greenlands of the Virunga Mountains (the lofty volcanoes of Africa’s oldest national park, established in 1925). The new lodge’s detached cottages, decorated in flairful style, feature all the modern amenities and imaginative touches we expect from One&Only, and provide a marvelous base from which we venture out for visits with the Virungas’ animal denizens, most notably its zealously protected mountain gorillas.
Whether our travellers embark on a Classic Safari, Private Classic, or a hand-crafted Custom adventure, Micato relishes selecting magnificent properties for the journey. These charming Southern Africa hotels, resorts, camps, and lodges vary in style and locale from chic urbanity to everentrancing tented camp luxury. (For more Custom standouts and exquisite Private Villas and Estates, see our expanded collection at Micato.com.)
south africa , zimbabwe , tanzania , and rwanda
There is a reason Singita was named the top hotel in Africa and voted best in the world more than 15 times. Each of its lodges provides unrivalled luxury in an unspoiled landscape. In South Africa, Lebombo is a sensory immersion, a glasswalled haven of elaborate simplicity. Embodying earthy elegance, Sweni is distinctly African and soothingly serene. Boulders’ rough-hewn, rock-and-timber aesthetic is infused with such lavish luxuries as private, heated plunge pools. Exceptional quality and refinement pervade the graceful and exclusive Ebony.
Modern and nostalgic, romantic and sexy, cozy and airy, colonial and African, Singita’s lodges are luxurious worlds within a wild land. True in South Africa, equally true in Singita’s East African properties, Sasakwa Lodge, Sabora Tented Camp, Faru Faru Lodge, Serengeti House, Milele and the exclusive-use Explore Camp.
Ulusaba Private Game Reserve
sabi sand game reserve , south africa
A private game reserve, Ulusaba affords boutique hotel comfort at the threshold of South Africa’s wilderness splendour. Owned by Sir Richard Branson and featuring his flair for mixing luxury with adventure, the camp has an attentive staff and superb facilities—including a world-class spa, gymnasium, tennis courts, wine cellar, and luxurious rooms—that make it an ideal location from which to spy passing predators or explore nearby, wildlife-rich Kruger National Park.
sabi sand game reserve, south africa
Considered one of the most environmentally sensitive lodges in Africa, Earth Lodge blends almost invisibly into the bushveld of the private Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which shares an unfenced border with famed Kruger National Park. Each of its 13 extra-luxurious suites (and its Amber Presidential Suite), decorated with natural wood sculptures by renowned South African artist Geoffrey Armstrong, features a private plunge pool, and glass-fronted bathrooms with indoor and outdoor showers.
kalahari desert , south africa
South Africa’s largest private game reserve—it’s larger than eight and a half San Franciscos—Tswalu Kalahari hosts a maximum of 30 guests at a time in its three properties, the Motse, Loapi Tented Camp, and Tarkuni Homestead. The three are brilliantly luxurious, wonderfully varied, and testaments to the Oppenheimer family’s superb taste, in both scenery and design. Limited space is the only reason we don’t rhapsodize about Tswalu for, say, two or three pages… per property.
sabi sand game reserve, south africa
Tengile’s nine, beautifully designed, solar-powered luxury suites are ensconced in a lush forest on a leisurely bend on the Sand River, attracting the plenteous wildlife of the private Sabi Sand Game Reserve, adjoining Kruger National Park. Each suite features a family-sized living room, indoor and outdoor showers, a private plunge pool, and a comfy viewing deck. Tengile’s common areas, including an especially grand dining room, are uncommonly homey.
phinda private game reserve , south africa
Set on a hilltop with wraparound views of the exuberantly green Lebombo Hills in KwaZulu-Natal, Phinda Mountain Lodge’s airy suites and cottages (many joinable to create family compounds) offers an imaginative host of activities, including, of course, game drives in the 73,000-acre Phinda Private Game Reserve, home to the Big Five. And Phinda Forest Lodge, set in Africa’s last remaining dry sand forest, is a particularly luxurious exemplar of ecological alertness and harmony.
cape town, south africa
A jewel in a city positively brimming with them, the One&Only is wonderfully situated in the soft shadow of Table Mountain, within easy ambling distance of the fizzy Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Its rooms and suites are warmly modern and commodious, its service is peerless, and its three restaurants—Isola (set on the hotel’s inner island), cosmopolitan Ochre, and Nobu (the great Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s sub-Saharan outpost)—are some of Africa’s culinary capital’s finest.
thornybush game reserve , south africa Micato’s safari experts are poised to give you tempting details on the private villas, private pools, grand suites, and overarching hospitality and service in Malewane’s three impressively luxe lodges, Malewane Lodge, Farmstead, and Waterside. All are set in the private, 34,500-acre Thornybush Game Reserve, which borders on famed Kruger National Park’s wondrous game lands. And each of these distinctively designed lodges offers deep immersion into the peaceful world apart that makes safari such a unique and vitalizing experience.
thornybush game reserve , south africa
Saseka is beautifully set in the private Thornybush Game Reserve, which shares a fenceless border with Kruger National Park. All the Big Five are in residence, along with their equally starry supporting cast of African animals. Designed by the visionaries Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, Saseka is a brilliant combination of modernity and classic, environmentally immersive safari style. Its eight luxurious tented suites each have their own private deck, outdoor shower, and pool.
selinda reserve , botswana
On the banks of a spillway in a private, pristine reserve, Selinda is one of Africa’s most luxurious wilderness-encounter camps; its superbly realized four tented villas are a study in polished wood and safari chic. From our doorstep the lush Delta is easily explorable by watercraft, vehicle, or on foot, while the temptations of a quiet swim or in-room massage beckon back at camp.
okavango delta , botswana
Intimate—only five rooms and a two-bedroom suite—Duba Plains Camp rests pacifically in the heart of the Okavango Delta. Designed by the renowned filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dereck Joubert to blend seamlessly into the Delta’s lush forests, Duba Plains pays tribute to the miraculous, animal-abounding Okavango with traditional Botswanan grace and cheery panache.
selinda reserve , botswana
Set in the shade of a red ivory forest, Zarafa Camp is an eco-friendly hideaway offering a personalized luxury camp experience. Accommodating only eight guests, the camp’s four 1,000-square-foot marquis tents each feature enchantingly rustic decor, complete with custom-crafted furniture and a copper fireplace. Outside, the veranda offers a private plunge pool, lounge, and breathtaking views of the Zibadianja Lagoon. Zarafa entwines exquisite privacy with princely comforts.
okavango delta , botswana
Gomoti Plains Camp prides itself on honoring its superb location on the Okavango’s Gomoti River by presenting a classic safari experience. Its 10 luxury tents and common area are raised on wooden decks in the old style and overlook the waters and woodlands of this particularly wildlife-rich part of the great Delta, which we explore on guided walks and in mokoro canoes, visiting remote islands and wending along fig-tree-lined channels. Game drives on drier land give an even deeper look at Gomoti’s free-roaming animals.
okavango delta , botswana
One of the World Heritage Site Okavango Delta’s shiniest jewels, Camp Okavango is set on lush Nxaragha Island, surrounded by the Delta’s wondrous, animal-thronged lagoons and hidden waterways. Its 11 lovely suites (and one family suite)—connected by charming elevated walkways to the main camp’s lounges, dining room, convivial fire pits, and infinity pool—feature expansive private viewing decks from which we look out at the ever-active Delta.
okavango delta , botswana
Nestled in the Okavango’s 770-square-mile Khwai Private Reserve, the new Tuludi was created to enfold its guests in the Okavango’s resplendent natural surroundings. Its seven tree-house-style rooms (and one family suite), designed with a soothing mix of modern and African styles, each feature a private plunge pool and sunken deck. The camp’s location within the Khwai Reserve offers Micato guests great privacy on game drives and boating sojourns in the Delta’s waterways.
okavango delta , botswana
Set beside a hippo-, elephant-, and Cape buffalofavoured lagoon in the Okavango’s 495,000-acre Khwai Private Reserve, Sable Alley is a new and brilliantly conceived camp whose canvas-walled, 600-square-foot suites combine old-fashioned safari ambience with up-to-the-second modern conveniences.
moremi reserve , botswana
Visitors to Machaba Camp are charmed by its extraordinarily airy and fresh tents, by its eventful and rewarding game drives in the Moremi Reserve, by the reserve’s profound quietude and riverine beauty, but they invariably praise the blissful, only-in-Africa experience of sitting at ease on the veranda of their tent, watching elephants, hippos, lions, giraffes, and a host of less-celebrated but equally fascinating animals as they pay a visit to the Khwai River in the warm evening.
okavango delta, botswana
Set on a nifty, solitudinous little island in a private conservancy in the lyrically twisting waterways of the Delta, Duke’s is named for its custodian, Sarefo “Duke” Sarefo, who was born on the island. Created by the founders of legendary Jack’s Camp, Duke’s honours its deep African roots with lovingly curated, traditional safari accoutrements, and a sense of understated luxury that compliments its lush and scenically exuberant surroundings.
namibrand nature reserve , namibia
Located in an especially spectacular spot in a country abounding in magic places, secluded Kwessi Dunes’ 12 air-conditioned, welcomingly luxurious chalets—each with a winsome stargazing room, outdoor and indoor showers, and all the mod cons, as they say—brings us into cordial contact with the NamibRand’s scarlet sand dunes, limitless African skies (it’s Africa’s first International Dark Sky Reserve), and its seemingly eternal desert and mountain landscapes.
etosha national park , namibia
Remindful of a splendid Moroccan fort, Onguma offers near-infinite views across the thorn tree-dotted plains of Etosha, one of the finest landscapes in a country rich with them. Each of the Fort’s 11 luxury suites, decorated with lush but subtle flair, stands alone, detached by 150 or so feet and many metaphorical miles from the rest of the world, giving us wonderful privacy in a dramatically solitudinous setting.
namib desert , namibia
The Sossusvlei Desert Lodge is a remote hostelry near an otherworldly wonder: the gargantuan Sossusvlei Dunes. The lodge’s spacious stoneand-glass villas—enfolded by ancient mountains— feature elegant interiors and spectacular views through massive windows. We explore this rugged landscape by foot or on quad bikes, and relax on a private veranda looking across to the almost glowing, barely believable dunes. And when night falls, we gaze at a matchless celestial spectacle from the lodge’s observatory.
victoria falls, zambia
Set beside the Zambezi River, just upstream from the fabulous torrent of Victoria Falls, Thorntree River Lodge’s eight twin and two family suites are inspirationally decorated in traditional safari style, with locally carved wood and private thatched verandas above the mighty river, looking out at Victoria’s silvery mists. Micato is especially fond of Thorntree for its imaginative engagement with the river, whose steady pulse animates and refreshes life in the lodge.
livingstone , zambia
An old-fashioned, colonial-style redoubt, fully up-tothe-second, one of T+L ’s Best Hotels in the World, the Royal Livingstone would be a sought-after destination even if it weren’t within strolling distance of ceaselessly stunning Victoria Falls. An African icon, the Royal Livingstone underwent a many-million-dollar upgrade recently, and its charms have been burnished to a shine for another few decades to come.
Victoria Falls Hotel
victoria falls, zimbabwe
A classic colonial-era masterpiece, the Victoria Falls is within walking distance of the gargantuan cataract. Built in 1904, it was the first and finest of the Falls’ hotels, and, after a complete and thoughtful renovation, it’s back at the top of the list. High tea on the hotel’s veranda, with Victoria’s mist creating rainbows in the near distance, is an unforgettable treat.
hwange national park , zimbabwe
With only seven tastefully designed, airy, up-to-the-minute modern tents, Somalisa takes appreciative advantage of its location in the heart of Hwange National Park’s classically African landscapes and the animals who frequent the camp’s waterhole. With their lively decor, sitting room, and big, old-fashioned bathtubs looking out at the bush, these tents, as we often say, resemble the tents of our youth like a Rolex resembles a Timex.
Rates quoted in this brochure are valid through December 31, 2025, and include:
Accommodations
First-class hotel accommodations based on double or twin-bedded rooms with private bath or showers—the categories assigned to hotels reflect the opinion of Micato Safaris.
Meals
Three meals daily per the itinerary, based on evening arrivals on Day 2. Regional wines, beer, soft drinks, and bottled water are included with meals.
Air Transportation
Your travel advisor should arrange international flights. Internal African flights on safari must be purchased through Micato.
Luggage
Micato provides a safari bag that guests are urged to travel with. On certain flights within Africa, strict luggage restrictions apply; details are provided in tour documentation. Luggage and personal effects are at “owner’s risk” throughout the tour unless insured.
Wi-Fi and Laundry
Where available, Wi-Fi and laundry service are included in the Tour rates.
Taxes
The tour program includes hotel taxes as imposed by city and state governments, entrance fees to National Parks and Game Reserves, and airport taxes for intra-country flights. International airport taxes are not included.
Not Included in Quoted Tour Rates:
Cost of obtaining passports, visas, travel insurance, excess baggage charges, items of a personal nature such as communication (calls, faxes, emails, etc.), deviations from the tour and anything else not specifically included.
Registration
A deposit of 30% is required at the time of booking. The balance or final payment is due 120 days prior to departure.
Cancellations
Cancellations received by Micato 120 days or more prior to departure are subject to a cancellation fee of 20% of the total retail tour rate; 119–60 days prior to departure is 50% of the tour rate; Cancellations received 59 days or less are subject to a 100% cancellation fee. Trip cancellation insurance is strongly recommended. Different cancellation terms apply for Custom, Private Classic journeys, or Extensions.
Arrangements
Quoted tour rates include planning, handling and operational charges, based on the current rate of exchange and tariff as of October 2024. In the event of an increase in foreign exchange or tariff rates, energy or fuel surcharges, or other increases, etc., except for increased governmental taxes which can be assessed at any time, rates are subject to revision up to the time of your final payment to us.
Guaranteed Departures
Micato guarantees departure of all group programs once a deposit is paid excepting only cases of force majeure. This includes any event that adversely affects international travel patterns such as epidemics, acts of God or government, terrorism as well as any other circumstance beyond Micato’s control.
Please Note: If a minimum number of travelers is not reached, Micato may provide local guides in each location in place of a Micato travel or safari director. Extensions are locally guided.
Responsibility
Taicoa Corporation d/b/a Micato Safaris, its employees, shareholders, officers and directors (collectively “Micato”) does not own or operate any entity which is to or does provide goods or services for your trip, including, for example, lodging facilities, transportation companies, local ground or safari operators, including, without limitation, various entities which may utilize the Micato name, guides, entertainment, food or drink service providers, equipment suppliers, etc. As a result, Micato is not responsible for any negligent or willful act or failure to act of any such person or entity. In addition, Micato is not responsible for any negligent or willful act or failure to act of any person or entity it does not own or control, nor for any act or inaction of any third party not under its control.
Without limitation Micato is not liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damage, injury, death, financial or other loss, accident, delay, inconvenience or irregularity of any kind which may be occasioned by reason of any act or omission beyond its control, including, without limitation any willful or negligent act, failure to act, breach of contract or violation of local law or regulation of any third party such as an airline, train, hotel, bus, taxi, van or safari operator, local groundhandler or guide, whether or not it uses the Micato name, financial default or insolvency of any supplier which
is to, or does supply any goods or services for this trip. Similarly, Micato is not responsible for any loss, injury, death or inconvenience due to delay or changes in schedule, transportation delays or cancellations or the failure of any transportation mechanism to depart or arrive timely or safely, overbooking of accommodation, financial or other default of any third party, attacks or bites by animals, pests, or insects, injury or death while on activities sponsored by lodging facilities or by other third parties, sickness, the lack of appropriate medical care, evacuation to same, if necessary, weather, strikes, acts of God or acts of or orders of government, acts of terrorism, or the threat thereof, force majeure, war, quarantine, epidemics, or the threat thereof, criminal activity, or any other cause beyond its control. In addition, guest holds Micato harmless from its own negligence and assumes all risk thereof.
The right is reserved to alter, cancel or postpone the itinerary or trip, at Micato’s sole discretion, as it may deem necessary or advisable. Micato reserves the right to decline to accept or retain any passenger on any of its tours if, in its sole discretion, it deems accepting or retaining any such passenger as creating a health or safety risk to any person or being detrimental to the tour, or if that person’s continued presence is inconsistent with the best interests of the trip, other guests or staff. In the event any passenger is removed from a trip, Micato’s only obligation is to refund to that person that portion of the payment allocable to unused services.
Cancellations and Postponements by Micato
If Micato cancels or postpones a trip, based upon acts of God or force majeure, acts or orders of government, epidemics or the threat thereof, terrorism or the threat thereof, strikes or labor disturbances, demonstrations, riots or civil unrest, criminal activity, supplier default or insolvency, or other similar circumstances, its sole obligation is to issue credits in the full amount of moneys paid to Micato to the extent its suppliers are crediting Micato with those monies paid by Micato to them. Under no circumstances is Micato obligated to refund the cost of any purchased travel insurance. Micato is not required to cancel any program for any reason including without limitation, United States Department of State, Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization or other Warnings or Advisories of any kind. Micato is not responsible for fees assessed by air carriers resulting from operational and/or itinerary changes, even if Micato makes the flight arrangements or cancels the program.
Miscellaneous
Micato reserves the right to substitute lodges, hotels or attractions of a similar category for those listed in this brochure.
Guests are urged to review the important information provided by the United States Department of State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s country specific information available at http://www.state.gov and http://www.cdc.gov.
Changes in these Terms and Conditions, Responsibility and Binding Arbitration Agreement can be made only in a writing signed by an officer of Micato.
Photography: Micato may take photographs or film of its trips and trip participants, and participant grants Micato express permission to do so and for Micato to use such for promotional or commercial use without payment of any compensation therefor.
Unused Services: There is no right to a refund for any unused services.
Binding Arbitration: Any dispute concerning, relating or referring to this Agreement, the brochure or any other literature concerning my trip, or the trip itself, shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. Sections 1-16, according to the then existing Comprehensive Arbitration Rules & Procedures of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (JAMS). Such proceedings will be governed by substantive (but not procedural) New York law and will take place in New York, NY. The arbitrator and not any federal, state, or local court or agency shall have exclusive authority to resolve any dispute relating to the interpretation, applicability, enforceability, conscionability, or formation of this contract, including but not limited to any claim that all or any part of this contract is void or voidable.
Please understand that by agreeing to these terms and conditions, you (and we) are waiving our right to a trial by jury. Any arbitration commenced against Micato must be on behalf of only the signatory to this Agreement and his or her immediate family members who travelled with signatory, such as a spouse or child. Under no circumstances can participant be part of a class or other joint action.
1-800-MICATO-1 (800-642-2861) Inquiries@Micato.com n Micato.com
© Copyright Micato Safaris 2024 Printed in China
“...undoubtedly the finest safari company...”
Micato is undoubtedly the finest safari company I have ever been involved with for any of my film shoots in Africa. Their organization and friendliness are outstanding, and the Pinto family’s involvement and obvious love distinguish them further.
Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus, Columbus Zoo, and Emmy Award–winning host of Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown
Our roots in India are deep and our enduring love for it is great. Mark Twain called it “the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his round” and his praise is as fresh as ever.
For the past 30 years Micato has showcased the subcontinent in high, elegant, and knowledgeable style. For a look at our sparkling brochure, pop over to our website—or call—and ask for a copy.
And, of course, join us at home
